


Nowhere Man

by lovegccds



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1970s, Asexual Peter Pettigrew, Bisexual Lily Evans Potter, Bisexual Remus Lupin, Canon Compliant, Canonical Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Coming of Age, Drug Use, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gay Regulus Black, Gay Sirius Black, Hogwarts, Indian James Potter, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Minor Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon, POV Multiple, Severus Snape Bashing, Sexuality, Slow Burn, but not like really bad drugs it’s like weed and cigarettes, minor james potter/regulus black, minor lily evans/female oc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27013834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovegccds/pseuds/lovegccds
Summary: September 1st, 1971, four boys met and changed the fate of the world.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 13
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue

JUNE 29, 1965

The moonlight shone across the trees and through the windows of the Lupin’s house, illuminating the small building in a white-blue glow. Hope Lupin closed the creaky wooden door to her son’s room whom she had just said goodnight to. She sighed slightly, turning her body to her husband, Lyall Lupin. He was asleep on the couch with a newspaper in his dangling hand displaying moving pictures. After years of marriage and knowing of the wizarding world, she could never comprehend the moving pictures. Lyall’s head fell onto his shoulder as he snored. Hope clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and collected the newspaper that was just in the grasp of her husband’s hand. The heading was scribed in big bold letters reading,

**“Man Taken Into Questioning For The Murder Of 2 Muggle Children”**

This paper was days old now. Hope knew Lyall was currently furious with his government called The Ministry of Magic because they had let a possible werewolf go. He came home angry, yelling about how incompetent they can be at times, and that the Werewolf Registry ought to be tighter. Hope of course understood none of this, but sympathized with his irritation anyway. She placed the paper down on the counter near their old white refrigerator and yawned quietly. There was a sudden thud that came from Remus’ room and she jerked her head in the direction of it, her breath hitched. 

She made her way to the door as fast as she could, starting to hear screaming. The door was locked. Hope pulled and kicked at the door to no avail. Lyall drowsily woke up from the noise to see his wife struggling at his son’s bedroom door and to hear a loud screaming that came from the other side. He pulled out his wand and unlocked the door with ease. Hope bursted through the opening and shrieked, stumbling backwards into the doorframe. Lyall threw himself into the room but faltered in shock for a split second. A werewolf was leaning over his son’s bed, blood pouring out of his side and over the blankets. 

_“STUPEFY!”_

The werewolf looked over to Lyall and growled, causing Lyall to swing a hand in front of Hope in a protective manner. The wolf then, to Lyall’s surprise, left through the window in which it came through. The full moon seemed larger and more obvious than it ever had before.

———

NOVEMBER 3, 1968

“You see that star over there? That one’s Sirius, the brightest in the sky,” He pointed out the window to the sky, taking a glance at his brother.

The younger rolled his eyes, forgetting his poise for a moment. “I’m well aware, you’ve told me dozens of times, Sirius.” 

Sirius Black scoffed and shrugged. He often let his walls down when the two were alone. Walburga and Orion Black were not the type to allow such a thing even when there were no guests in the house. He figured calling his parents ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ was too childish and improper, so he called them by their first names. 

It was Sirius’s ninth birthday, not that anyone cared. Birthdays weren’t celebrated, in fact, nothing really was in 12 Grimmauld Place. 

At the ripe age of five, Sirius was taught only three important things. Mudbloods, muggles, and blood traitors are scum, as a Black you are superior to others, and to keep a state of serenity at all times. Walburga said it in much bigger words that Sirius could barely grasp at the time, but he eventually figured it out. He learned to not question anything that was told to him.

The air was always suffocating and much too dense to breathe in at times. The walls and floor of the hidden house were always polished to perfection. Whether Sirius acknowledged it or not, there was something like a balloon in his chest that inflated every day from that horrible atmosphere. 

Regulus sat back on the edge of his bed and pouted, seemingly in thought. He looked down at the dark wood floor and scrunched his eyebrows a fraction. The younger blinked quickly and shook his head, shuffling his feet in an awkward manner. Sirius turned around and furrowed his eyebrows while tilting his head. Regulus shook his head again and walked out of the room. Sirius’ eyes lingered on the doorway with a blank expression for a moment before looking away again. 

———

JULY, 1969

The wind blew in her dark red hair as she swung on the playground, smiling and kicking her legs up and down. She got as high as she could go, the chains nearly touched the bar that held the swing up, nearly eight feet in the air. She braced herself, then jumped off at the very top. As if time slowed, she descended slower than a normal person would and landed on the ground softly. 

“How did you do that?” A high pitched voice came from behind her, the person being her older sister Petunia. She was sitting on the bench a few feet away, smoothing her skirt out. 

Lily Evans turned around and raised an eyebrow, “How did I do what?” She looked back at the swing she just jumped from, what _did_ just happen? Peculiar things have happened to her before, but that was likely the most inexplicable one of them all. One time she had made a glass bowl break in the dining room after Petunia stole her favorite doll, but had she really done that? She thought it odd timing, perhaps something had fallen on it. 

“You don’t know what I’m talking about? What you just did! How did you do it?” She persisted, waving her hands around for dramatics. Lily shrugged, she really had no idea. Maybe this time it was the wind that had done it, it was rather breezy outside after all. Little did she know a boy was watching her from behind the bushes the whole time. The poor one from Spinner’s End that Petunia turned her nose up to. He planned to tell her the truth later that day. 

———

SEPTEMBER, 1969

“Bet you can’t catch this one!” A wild jet haired boy shouted across the field to his father, gusts of wind pounded against his face. He was high up in the air, clutching to his broomstick with one hand and a large red ball that resembled a quaffle in the other. He enjoyed times like this, where he could just spend time with his family. With all his might, he launched the ball into the air, secretly hoping his father did catch it. Fleamont Potter dove down anticipating the quaffle, grunting slightly as it hit his chest and cradled it. James cheered and clapped his hands, slightly stumbling on his broom while doing so. 

The sun was starting to set over the wide ground, painting the sky in faint pinks and purples. Everything around them had a slight golden tint to them. This was James’ favorite time of day. 

In two years he’d be going to Hogwarts, it was the only thing he’d truly been anticipating for years. The only things on his mind were learning magic and playing Quidditch. He had everything he needed, maybe he would like a brother as well, but those things weren’t exactly possible. 

When James climbed into bed that night, he thought about what he could do when he got to learn magic. Pranking was high on his list, his father always told him what he got up to, and would always earn a stern look from his mother. Making friends was a big priority, because how would he have fun without them? Getting sorted into Gryffindor wasn’t something he was worried about, his family’s been in the same house for generations. His mind filled with happy thoughts let him drift off to sleep silently.

———

OCTOBER 31, 1970

The far corners of the walls were filled with cobwebs and fake spiders. On the front porch stood a slightly lopsided jack-o-lantern that lit up the dark lawn filled with poorly maintained flowers. A small pudgy boy dressed up in a yellow shirt with a single black stripe and a white baseball cap ran up to the front door and knocked.

“Trick or Treat!” He squeaked, holding out his paper bag in hopes of a chocolate bar. A man opened the door and bent down to smile.

“Is that Charlie Brown?” He gasped in a theatrical tone as the boy nodded. “That is adorable, my children love Charlie Brown as well!” The man reached into a bucket and pulled out a pink Laffy Taffy, dropping it into the boy’s bag. The child’s smile faded for a slight second before nodding in contentment.

“Have a good night, sir!” He beamed, waddling down the stairs to his parents. One a muggle and one a witch. His mother dressed in her robes she’d wear to work as anyone would mistake it for an expensive muggle witch costume. 

The boy’s younger sister dressed up as a princess sat in a tiny stroller led by his father. He saw his child making his way to them and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards, “Did you get anything good here, Peter?” 

Peter Pettigrew shrugged and made a small smile. It was alright, really. Peter was grateful for what he got, the man lived in a small house and may not have been able to give much. Pink Laffy Taffies were his favorite flavor of them anyway. 

———

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Welcome to this story. I apologize for the first chapter being short and very boring, it is only a prologue before we begin the real story. Throughout this fic I will be having almost all lgbtq+ main characters because that is how I personally headcanon them. If you disagree with any of this, I would not read this story. Besides that, I will be writing and developing many friendships and relationships along with characters that don’t get much recognition at all. The relationships in the tags are the endgame relationships, so also don’t read if you don’t want to see any one of the three.
> 
> Anyway, I’ll try my best to update every week or two! I’ve written about 7,500 words of this story already and I am having a lot of fun with it. Thank you and have fun reading!


	2. First Year : To Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 3/4 Marauders meet on the train along with the canon Snape and Lily meeting James and Sirius scene. They all get sorted and Sirius makes multiple enemies in one day.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1971

Run into a wall they said, it’ll be easy they said! Lily felt like this was the most insane thing she’d ever done. What if she crashed and someone saw her? What if this was all a big joke? Sure, she got her supplies from Diagon Alley but surely someone would’ve told her it was a joke by now. It’s been 2 years since she found out. She quickly glanced at her parents and a very reluctant-to-come-along Petunia and grimaced. Lily gathered up her courage and started running, her small tawny owl hooting at the movement. Lily squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for impact. But there was none. 

She opened her eyes and was instantly overwhelmed. The bright colors, strong smells and people dressed in outrageous robes were everywhere. Lily let out a small gasp of excitement and disbelief, it _was_ real. Her mother and father came out of the same wall she had only moments ago and looked just as much in awe. Petunia came out disgruntled and scrunched up her nose at all the different kinds of people and smelly animals. She fixed her blonde hair that came loose while going through the wall to Platform 9 ¾. 

“It smells like animal dung in here!” Petunia whined, crossing her arms while making an ugly face. 

Lily rolled her eyes, she missed when they used to be best friends. It seemed like a lifetime ago when the two sisters could share secrets and build pillow forts. It was all nasty looks and thrown insults from her older sibling and it almost made Lily not want to be magic at times. It started after Severus Snape befriended her and told her about magic and Hogwarts, Petunia avoided her like the plague. Severus had been rude to Petunia before and even dropped a tree branch on her with magic, so Lily couldn’t _really_ blame her. Calling her a freak was her new favorite insult. Deep down Lily knew that Petunia was jealous, it was obvious when she sent a letter to the Headmaster to let her in to learn magic. It had been declined, and Petunia didn’t come out of her room the rest of the day. 

Lily peered through the crowd of magical people for Severus, trying to spot his long straight black hair. She saw a couple other boys with black hair but they definitely weren’t him. Lily pursed her lips and hummed quietly. Perhaps he’d be on the train already.

Lily turned back to Petunia, who was slouching against the wall, trying to hide herself. “I’m really sorry I have to go. I’ll miss you this year, Petunia. Maybe you’ll come around to the whole magic thing when I’m back!” She beamed with naive optimism, earning her only a blank stare back.

Petunia sneered and looked down at Lily like she did to the people at Spinner’s End. “You think I’d ‘come around’ to you being a _freak_ ? Don’t hold your breath! I won’t have to deal with that awful boy anymore this year, I’m _happy_ you’re finally leaving.” 

The words stung into Lily’s chest and made tears well up in her bright green eyes. Her lips were in a thin line to stop the tears from coming down as she firmly nodded, turning away from her older sister. She quickly hugged her parents and said her goodbyes, knowing she’d likely write to them anyway. While stepping onto the train Petunia’s awful goodbye started to make her eyes water again. Lily found an empty compartment to let the tears run down her face.

———

“Do you have everything? Is Tally here? Are you wearing your lucky socks? Merlin I am going to miss you so much.” Euphemia Potter frantically asked, trying to flatten James’ hair (to no success). Tally, his light gray owl, hooted in response to her. James closed his eyes and smiled, she was overprotective but probably the best Mother in the entire world. 

“Yes, Mum. I even _triple_ checked, just like you asked me to. I’ll be fine!” He wrapped his arms around her, tucked his head into her chest and grinned. “I’ll miss you too.” James pulled away and pushed his square lens glasses up, “And yes, I’m wearing the lucky socks.” He pulled up the bottom of his brown trousers to reveal blue socks with golden snitches all over them. 

Fleamont Potter came up behind James and mussed up his hair again, causing Euphemia to sigh and shake her head. “Jamesie I cannot _believe_ it’s already your first year at Hogwarts. Seems only moments ago you were a tiny tot running around the living room with a fake broomstick. Promise me you’ll have fun this year!”

“Of course I will! I’m gonna miss you both a ton, really I will!” James went to hug his Father who gave him a strong pat on the back. Everything would be fine, he would make friends, have fun, and occasionally learn something, he supposed. Grabbing onto his case and dashing to the already packed train, he took a steady breath. 

How ready was he really? What if he did something stupid and got expelled? He quickly dismissed these thoughts, though. He would be in Gryffindor and he would make great memories. All the compartments he could see on the train were full, giving James a small sense of panic. What if he didn’t make any friends at all? 

Finally at the tail of the train, there was an empty compartment. Well, almost empty. There was a redhead that had tears dried on her cheeks and a greasy looking boy, but everywhere else was full. James shrugged and opened the door, she didn’t even seem to notice. 

“Um...hello. I’m James?” He tried to communicate but seemed to be failing as they both only stared at him. “Well...alright.” He sat back and scratched the back of his neck while tapping his foot on the ground. This was not going well.

———

Being out in the open felt so good, Sirius rarely got to do this. Now he’d be out of his suffocating house for the entire year. It felt as though a new door was opening, a new part of him even. It wasn’t that he wanted to _rebel_ , but he felt different. Seeing people be loving with their parents when all Walburga would give him was a hand rested upon his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t out of line...was odd. He did secretly give Regulus a hand squeeze when she wasn’t looking, Sirius was leaving him there the whole year after all. 

He quickly got onto the train, already a bit late. Sirius tried to walk as nicely as he could, maybe that would impress someone? He kept going farther back into the train with a worrisome look on his face. What happened if he didn’t get a place to sit? That would be humiliating. The heir of the Noble House of Black sitting on the floor of Hogwarts Express? It was unheard of! 

There were only a couple empty spots in the very back of the train with two other people his age. An awkward specky looking boy with dark skin and messy hair, a greasy headed kid, and some red headed girl, Sirius hoped they were nice. He took a deep breath and slid open the door. 

“Is this full?” He asked in a voice that was far too posh to be his. The three of them stared up at Sirius, the specky one who was smiling a little shook his head. He stumbled a bit with the door and then slid across from him.

“I’m James Potter! What’s your name?” The kid called James asked in an overly confident voice. 

“Sirius Black,” He said proudly. Both James and the other boy’s eyebrows shot up. James’ seemed to be out of acknowledgement and the other’s seemed to be out of knowing. The compartment went silent, did he do something wrong?

Soon the silence was broken by the blubbering redhead who whispered to the greasy kid. “Tuney hates me. She knows we saw that letter from Dumbledore.”

‘So what?’ He replied carelessly. Sirius furrowed his eyebrows. 

The redhead looked terribly offended by his comment, and gaped. “So she’s my sister!”

“But she’s only a –“ He quickly caught himself, not that she seemed to notice. Was the redhead a mudblood? She seemed alright, if only she would just stop crying. “But we’re going!” Grease head nudged her slightly while grinning. “This is it! We’re off to Hogwarts!”

The redhead smiled slightly, but only just. Sirius noticed him and James were just listening in on their conversation. He opened his mouth to start talking when the pale boy unknowingly interrupted him.

“You’d better be in Slytherin.” He nudged her again. 

This seemed to get James’s attention, his face screwed up in disgust. “Slytherin? Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” He turned to Sirius for a moment and grinned. 

Sirius frowned and tilted his head to the side. This didn’t seem like the best compartment to be in after all. “My whole family’s been in Slytherin,” he said solemnly, looking at James with furrowed eyebrows. He felt a bit rude while doing so though, and backed away. The other was just trying to make friends like the rest of them were. Well, maybe not the redhead and greaseball. 

James gaped in surprise and sat back up to fix his posture. “Blimey, and I thought you were all right!” He said with a large grin on his face. Sirius definitely liked this kid better than the other two, and if they were planning on Slytherin (despite one being a mudblood) then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. What if he broke tradition? He had been feeling somewhat rebellious earlier this morning. But the first Black to _ever_ be sorted differently? His Mother would surely punish him for that, right?

“Maybe I’ll break the tradition.” He shrugged and smiled to pretend like he wasn’t scared out of his mind. “Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?” 

Now the other two were listening in on their conversation, it made Sirius feel important. James pretended to pull out a long invisible sword and held it up fiercely. “Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!” He said in a booming voice, smiling triumphantly. “Just like my Dad!” Sirius definitely liked him. The other boy didn’t seem to when he laughed at James’ impression. Not in a good way either. James’ confidence seemed to drop into the floor as he turned onto Snape and glared slightly. “Got a problem with that?” 

“No,” he sneered and looked away as if holding in another horrible laugh. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy –“

“Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” Sirius snapped, defending his new found friend. James bursted into laughter trying to contain himself with his own hand. The sight made Sirius grin broadly. 

The redhead finally spoke up again after her long silence. “Come on, Severus, Let’s go to another compartment.” They stood up at the same time, heading for the door.

“ _Oooooo_ good luck with that Snivellus, they’re almost all full!” James’ confidence soared as he now knew he had a friend to rely on. He stretched out a leg and nearly tripped ‘Severus’ who scowled and slammed the door.

The compartment only contained the two of them now, and they roared with laughter again. Tears trickled down Sirius’ face in exhilaration, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy. James was like a great paint splatter on his life. Sirius had never seen so much color.

———

A small scarred boy sat in a crowded compartment with a book in hand. He had to squeeze in with a second year and some other first years. He’d never been around this many kids his age in his life, he was always told not to go near them. While eavesdropping he learned the second year was named Frank Longbottom and one first year’s name was Alice Fortescue. The other first years stayed as quiet as he did. There was a short scared looking blonde boy who Remus thought he seemed as though he would like to leave at any moment. There were three girls, a girl with dark skin and kinky hair in 2 poofy pigtails, a pale girl that had long curly blonde hair, and a tan girl with wavy dark chocolate colored hair. 

Remus realized he hadn’t been looking at his book at all, and was getting rather claustrophobic. He swiped his bangs out of his eyes and stood up, the same size as Frank who was sitting and hunched over. He carefully stepped over multiple pairs of feet and finally got out into the hall of the train car. He let out a quick breath of relief. He hated small spaces. All they did was remind him of the bunker under his house where he had to go once or twice a month. Maybe he could find a compartment with less people in it. 

Three rooms down housed two boys his age laughing hysterically at something. Remus didn’t want to interrupt them, but sitting in a carriage with two is better than six. He was going to knock on the door when one boy spotted him. He had long black hair and pale gray eyes that kept darting around his face through the window. Suddenly he felt insecure, was he staring at the couple of scars on his face? Remus started to back away when the other boy who wore glasses stood up and slid the door open.

“Do you need a seat? We have plenty to spare!” He beamed and waved a hand toward the seat next to him. Remus realized he should probably communicate with people, that's how this stuff worked.

“Um—yeah. If that would be—okay with you two,” He stammered, his fingers pulling at each other behind his back. It was a bad habit. The darker one nodded and allowed Remus in to sit. 

“I’m James and this is Sirius, we just met too.” James pointed at the two of them in correlation to their names. Sirius was the one who kept looking at him weirdly. 

“Yeah we also met these two gits before, you should watch out for them, a greasy kid named Snivellus and some mudblood-“

James’ eyes snapped forward and widened, his jaw slack. Remus glanced at James and then back at the floor, rubbing his shoes together. Sirius looked between the two, and said nothing. The silence was deafening.

“You didn’t tell me you were a _blood purist_. No wonder your family’s been in Slytherin…” James looked visibly hurt, his tone dying down to barely above a whisper. Remus was already worried out of his mind, they allowed blood purists into Hogwarts? And what if they found out what he was? Him and Dumbledore would get the sack. Sirius just looked utterly confused. “You know you can’t say that word, right? It’s horrible and discriminates against muggleborns!”

“Well my Mother always told me that’s just what we call them. I don’t question what she tells me.” Sirius gave a mere shrug. Remus stared out the window at the moving hills and clouds as the train chugged on. How good could Hogwarts really be? James seemed really nice, but Sirius was a jerk. Staring at him like some weird thing to marvel then saying a blood purist slur like it’s nothing. Remus declared Sirius Black as a right prat. 

James shook his head and frowned.“Maybe you should start questioning her a little more! I know my parents are good people and taught me the right thing. I think you’re cool, Sirius. Don’t turn out like a purist git okay?” Sirius let out a long exhale and pursed his lips, nodding only slightly. If you blinked you’d miss it.

The rest of the train ride was silent and filled with awkward tension, all of them avoiding each other’s gaze. Remus reopened his book, finally getting to escape the weird atmosphere he was in. This was not turning out how he’d expected it to. He now planned to stay to himself and only do his work for the rest of his time at Hogwarts. 

———

Lily was still sulking over the two boys that were rude to Severus, she prayed she wouldn’t be in Gryffindor and stuck with James. She planned on Slytherin with Severus but Sirius had a high chance of being in Slytherin. Maybe Ravenclaw would be the best option for her. 

Lily hopped out of the train hearing a loud grunt-like voice. “Firs’ years over here! Firs’ years come with me please!” Her eyes widened when she saw the person the voice came from, a large man (three times the size of Lily) with a large beard and hair that covered the majority of his face. His small black eyes twinkled in delight at the sight of new students. Lily carefully waded her way through the large crowd of people to stand next to Severus and the rest of first years dressed in identical robes. 

Now sitting in slightly damp wooden boats that crossed the river with magic, Lily was with three others. A girl with short curly black hair, a tan girl with brown hair, and Severus. The two girls were sitting at the back of the boat, looking like they were inching away from Severus as much as they could. Lily looked out at the crystal clear water that reflected the nearly full moon in a gorgeous sparkling glow. There was a huge castle with large spires and a clock that all looked like it could be from a fairytale. Lily sighed and put her chin on her arms while leaning forward on the boat. Everything still seemed unreal to her, eleven years of her life things like this would’ve been in her fantasy books. To think that not only is it real, but she’s also magical herself, was an overwhelming feeling. 

She carefully stepped out of the boat after it arrived on the shore, stumbling a little on the stone floor. Majority of the first years were nervously glancing at one another while fidgeting with their hands or clothes. Lily felt like her insides were turned upside down as they made their way to a large door where a woman in her mid-thirties stood. She had on a dark green dress, her hair was in a tight bun at the back of her head where a pointed hat was placed upon. She had a tight but welcoming looking face, but it only made Lily glance around and shift in her place once more. 

“Welcome to Hogwarts! I am Professor McGonagall. Before you take your seats you will be sorted into your houses.When I call your names, you will come to the front to be sorted accordingly. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.” Professor McGonagall announced with a calm smile on her slightly ageing face. Lily’s insides did another flip. She had to be sorted in front of _everyone?_ What if she wasn’t qualified for Hogwarts anymore? Maybe they made a mistake and whoever was sorting her would tell her she didn’t belong there after all. Lily looked over at Severus, who seemed scarily calm for what was about to happen.

McGonagall pushed the grand doors open and walked down the aisle, the sixty-or-so students followed close behind, finally spreading out in front of the staff table. The room was filled with hundreds of candles and a charmed cloudy sky on the ceiling. Lily felt many eyes on her back. An old man with a long beard and half moon glasses placed a dusty old hat with a ripped brim on a wooden stool in front of them. She almost wondered what this could possibly mean when the hat started to move, and even...sing? Lily stared in awe as it actually _talked,_ was this a regular occurrence in this world? After it finished, the school applauded and eventually died down. McGonagall stood next to the stool with a large scroll in her right hand and the top of the hat in her left. 

“Avery, Curtis!” She announced, scanning the crowd of children when one stepped up. A smug boy with short dark brown hair strutted to the front and sat down on the stool like a throne. The hat took three seconds before shouting out.

“SLYTHERIN!”

The Slytherin table stood up and cheered as Avery made his way to the far left side of the Great Hall. The cheers quieted down after he sat down, making the time seem to go much slower than it already was. The sorting now began.

McGonagall tilted the scroll and read, “Black, Sirius!” 

Lily rolled her eyes, it was the kid who made fun of Severus earlier. The Slytherin table was already smiling and Lily could’ve sworn she heard someone say while dripping in sarcasm, “Wonder where this one will go eh?”

———

Sirius was visibly shaking, what happened if he didn’t get Slytherin like he was supposed to? He didn’t even really _want_ to be in Slytherin. Based on the Slytherins he knew (which was everyone in his family ever) compared to James, he found he preferred James despite only meeting him today. He slowly made his way to the stool, looked around at the four tables, and sat down. The hat was placed over his head and the brim covered his eyes by a fraction. There was no immediate reaction or loud shouting of Slytherin house. Instead a long silence took place before the hat finally spoke, but it was to Sirius only.

“Now, what will I do with you?” The hat said softly, only letting Sirius listen. “Very cunning, very ambitious indeed, but those aren’t the traits you truly value, are they?” Sirius took a deep shuddering breath and thought to himself. Where _would_ he best be sorted? Sirius took one glance at James, who was eyeing him hopefully, and that was all he needed. 

“Put me in Gryffindor. I don’t want Slytherin anymore.” Sirius whispered, keeping his eyes fixated on James, hoping the hat heard. He heard a humming sound come from the old hat.

“Wish to defy your family, do you? Very brave of you, Sirius Black. You would do just fine in Gryffindor. You’re sure? Alright, good luck.” The hat spoke quietly before raising it’s voice to shout out the name.

“GRYFFINDOR!” 

The Great Hall stood completely silent for a moment, the Slytherins glanced at each other warily. James looked happier than he did when they were playing on the train, a wide grin spread across his whole face while his eyes shimmered. A second year with short black hair at the Gryffindor table stood up and started clapping, nudging his friends to join in. Soon, the whole Gryffindor house was cheering as Sirius hopped off the stool to join them. He sat down next to the boy who first clapped for him first.

He was rather lanky for being only twelve years old. His hair was combed to the side, only a few strands fell forward in front of his brown eyes. He turned to Sirius and stuck out his hand, “Hello Sirius! I’m Frank Longbottom, pleased to meet you!” Sirius smiled and grabbed the end of his hand, giving it a quick shake in a formal manner. 

A couple people later and the mudblood redhead sat down on the stool. Her name was Lily Evans, he picked up. By the look on her face, she was almost having an argument with the hat, which Sirius found incredibly amusing. By the time she slumped down in surrender, the brim opened up to roar.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

The whole table clapped and cheered as she looked apologetically in the crowd to her greasy friend and made her way to the table. When she saw Sirius clapping she scrunched up her nose and sat far away from him, so he stopped and slouched over onto the table while pouting. Did he really give that bad a first impression? He quickly spaced out for about ten minutes before the Gryffindors were whooping again. He peeked up over his arms and laid eyes upon the quiet boy who came in their compartment. The small boy looked up and down the table, saw Sirius, and immediately went to the other side with Evans. In fact, all of the new Gryffindors sat on the other side, far away from Sirius. Including a small pudgy blonde boy and two other girls. 

Sirius looked away, feeling hurt. Maybe Gryffindor was a bad choice after all. But his mind was quickly changed after many sortings later, when James walked up to the stool. He was smirking and looked over to Sirius. The hat barely touched his head at all when it was announced.

“GRYFFINDOR!” 

James jumped up and dashed to the Gryffindor table that was clapping and shouting, high-fiving everyone as he ran by. He quickly sat down next to Sirius, practically exploding in his own seat.

“I was really trying to keep my excitement to myself for about thirty minutes! I could’ve imploded because of you!”

“Because of me?” 

“Yeah, because of you! Nearly had me killed on my first day because you got sorted in the same house as me. Can you believe that?” 

Sirius shook his head and stared at the starry ceiling, hardly believing his luck. He thought it had all been lost when the tiny scarred kid and Evans didn’t want to sit with him, but this was even better than that.

The last Gryffindor to be sorted was Peter Pettigrew, who was the only other one to sit with Sirius and James. On Evans’ side there was of course Evans, Alice Fortescue, tiny scarred boy, and a couple other girls. Now Sirius didn’t want to make any enemies on his first day seeing as he only had James; however, he was more than glad to say he did not like Lily Evans one bit. 

———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re wondering why I’ve made Sirius prejudiced, I’m here to explain why! He’s 11 right now, and has grown up with these beliefs around him his entire life. He had no one to tell him these things were wrong until he met James, Remus, and Peter. When James tells him off, it’s the first time he’s ever been told off for acting how he was raised to be. During the sorting, he only wanted to be in Gryffindor because James did too, since at this point he’s only a follower rather than a leader. It’s the things that have been set up to make him the perfect death eater for when he’s older. Obviously he will grow out of this character and become a much better person as this fic goes on. Hope this helps!


	3. First Year : Awkward Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day is always this awkward ...right?

SEPTEMBER 1, 1971

Remus had to endure a long boring drawn-out speech that he didn’t really care about. He heard enough of these when the old man was getting him to come to Hogwarts, not that he was ungrateful or anything. He’d never been more grateful for anything in his entire life.

He remembered the day he got his letter about six months ago. Hope and Lyall had lost hope of him going to school many years ago, but Remus always had a small flicker to compensate for their burnt-out dream. On his eleventh birthday, Dumbledore came to their house and handed the invitation directly. 

_“You couldn’t possibly mean—?” Lyall stumbled and gripped his armchair in utter shock. “But surely you understand his condition-“_

_“I am very well aware of Mr. Lupin’s condition; however, arrangements will be made.” Dumbledore smiled calmly. He always had such a serene and peaceful look to him it was almost unnatural._

_Remus still hadn’t opened the letter with green text on the back. He simply stared, too afraid he would wake up. His eyes diverted to the side and he took a deep breath, looking back up at Dumbledore. “Sir—Professor...I’m too dangerous to go to Hogwarts. I don’t think you really understand it. I-I have to decline your offer.” He held the letter back out for the old man to take, but he simply shook his head and held his hand up._

_“Oh, no need. We have a special house where you will be going for your transformations every full moon. This house will be protected by a Whomping Willow that will be planted if you shall go. I can assure you that no one will be able to be near you on the night of the full moon. It would be an honor to have you at my school, Remus Lupin.”_

_Remus looked to his parents for affirmation, they were a bit conflicted, to say the least. What would happen if someone found out what he was? Hope and Lyall made conversations with their eyes and expressions without saying a word. Remus always wondered how they did it. Hope looked back at Remus with a soft look on her face and simply nodded with a small smile. And thus he began his new life._

Dumbledore sent everyone up to their dormitories, asking the Prefects to lead all the other first years to their appropriate areas. The Gryffindor Prefect that led Remus and the rest of the house up was named Marietta Grace. She explained the whole password fiasco with the Fat Lady, which personally Remus saw as an offensive name. 

The other Prefect named Isaac Fern gathered the four first years to the boys' dorm stairs. Remus also only just realized Black was in this group and groaned. Of course, he had to share a room with the git. He hadn’t been able to form an opinion on Peter, but he seemed nice enough. James was kind but extremely cocky, and it set Remus off a little. Overall, his dorm arrangements gave him very mixed feelings. 

Once again, Black gave him a weird look before drawing his curtains back and calmly sitting on the bed. For being such a prat, he was certainly a very proper one. The room was filled with awkward tension before James spoke up.

“Can we do one of those things where we introduce ourselves?” He asked while mussing up his blankets. Peter looked up over his trunk and smiled.

“Sure, how about like our name and something we like! I’m Peter Pettigrew and I really like...animals?” He shrugged, looking over at the three others in the room. 

James nodded and beamed. “That’s cool! I’m not the biggest animal person, besides Tally of course,” he pointed to a gray owl that stayed silent in her cage. “But anyway, I’m James Potter and I like quidditch. Like a lot.”

Remus stayed silent, waiting for Black to speak up. Luckily Black did just that. He cleared his throat quickly before standing back up, “Hi, I’m Sirius Black. Um—I don’t really know what I like...I like James, he’s nice,” he glanced at James and grinned hopefully. 

James only furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, “Well surely you like something! Favorite color?” Sirius seemed to seriously contemplate this, his eyes darting up to the curtains on their four-poster beds.

“Red.”

“You’re only saying that cause you looked at the drapes!”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

Remus put his head in his hands, sighing deeply. He’d never had friends before, was this what it was like? Maybe he should rethink friendships. He was slowly getting a headache in his right eye and rubbed his temples. James gave in after multiple minutes of ‘am not’ ‘are too’ and sat back down on his bed. 

“Fine. Fine! What about you?” James asked, turning his head to Remus. It made him feel extremely cornered from all the focus on him. He was surprised he made Gryffindor at all with the way he reacted to being displayed up in front of the entire school. Not the bravest and most chivalrous thing he’s ever done, but he could live with it. 

“‘m Remus Lupin. I like er—chocolate?” He said in a much quieter tone than intended. Realizing he was fidgeting with his hands, he put them behind his back so no one would notice. They were all staring at him, Black more intently than the others. Remus hated that. It made him feel like an animal in one of those zoos his Mother had brought him to when he was much younger. 

Remus quietly turned away from everyone else to pull out his Transfiguration textbook because he knew he would be missing the first class. The less he thought about it the better, but with a bunch of nosy kids, how was he supposed to sneak out of the castle with none of them noticing? There were definitely still a pair of eyes on him, but Remus tried his very best to not look up, he knew exactly who it was. He realized he hadn’t read a single word of the textbook four pages in. Sighing, he placed the book back on the bedside table and laid down, closing his curtains.

———

Peter recognized Remus’ uneasiness from being watched and turned away to continue unpacking. He was a very observant person and could usually tell what people were feeling by their body language. His two other roommates, James and Sirius, could not. Especially Sirius. Peter found him strange. His mother talked ill of the Blacks and how horrible they were, every member of that family had been in Slytherin since they started attending Hogwarts. 

So why was Sirius different? Peter glanced over his shoulder at the boy who was staring into space. He had no self-awareness whatsoever and seemed very stubborn based on the bickering he’d done with James. But his mannerisms were very drawn back and unsure. Peter flopped down on his bed, not wanting to think about Sirius any longer. 

There were so many things Peter planned to do here, he’d anticipated this for _years_. Sure, he’s got some weird roommates, but who cares? He supposed these would be the best seven years of his life. Someone put the lantern light out, causing the room to fall into darkness. Drowsy from the long train ride, his eyelids were forcing themselves closed. Peter snuggled under the layers of blankets on his four-poster bed and drifted off into sleep.

———

SEPTEMBER 2, 1971

  
  


“RISE AND SHINE!” James pulled open the curtains to the windows, letting the morning sunshine in the room. Was he really the first one up? Two beds down, Peter groaned and shifted his drapes and held it there to keep from blinding himself. “Merlin, you lot are a bunch of night owls. Next, I’ll hand you a letter and you’ll go deliver it…” He muttered to himself while pacing around, tugging his tie over his head. 

The second person out of bed was Remus, who looked like he could pass out on the floor at any moment. His hair was now more curly and stuck out at the random and his cheeks were bright pink. He grabbed his uniform and went into the bathroom to change. This didn’t come off as peculiar at all to James, he had met the bloke only yesterday so changing in front of him was probably awkward. 

James was completely dressed in his uniform while Sirius and Peter hadn’t even got out of bed yet. He rolled his eyes, making his way to each bed, yanking the curtains back to purposely get them up. Peter kept his head under the covers, purposely avoiding James. Sirius flinched and shot his eyes open, backing up a fraction in his bed before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Oh Merlin, thought you were my Mother. Sorry, James,” Sirius exclaimed, laughing while keeping his eyes diverted from James. James furrowed his eyebrows and frowned at Sirius slightly while pacing backward. 

James didn’t think he was very smart, but he definitely wasn’t stupid. He would never react like that if he thought that Sirius was _his_ Mother. Yesterday, Sirius said he didn’t question anything he was told by his family. James also didn’t want to jump to conclusions or ask him about it, because what if what he was connecting wasn’t true? He dropped the subject from his mind for the time being and dug in his trunk for his bag. James had a large assortment of items in it like textbooks, candies he bought on the train with Sirius, a picture frame of him with his parents, and an assortment of pyjamas. 

Remus came out of the bathroom in his uniform once again avoiding the gaze of everyone. He grabbed his bag which was already full and ready to go and swiftly left the room. James found him intriguing because maybe he was just a shy kid, but what if there was something else? Another thought he quickly discarded for later.

“He isn’t sitting with us again,” Peter muttered, aggressively stabbing his eggs while looking across the other end of the table at Remus. James sighed and shook his head. It wasn’t a big deal to him, he would just have to live with someone who preferred to not be with him. He could handle that. 

A flock of owls flew through the high ceilinged windows carrying various packages and letters — one being a dark gray owl that was flying straight towards them. Sirius was silent, rubbing his arms with his thumbs. The owl dropped the letter on the table and he quickly grabbed it, eyeing James and Peter while putting it in his pocket. 

James’ eyebrows knitted together, “Who’s that from?” He peeked over the table in hopes of knowing who was making Sirius so anxious. He was nosy and he knew it, so what?

“No one important,” Sirius muttered seemingly more to himself than James at all. His eyes were diverted from the table as he picked up his drink to hide his face in it.   
  


———

Lily stared at the white feather that gently sat atop the table in front of her. The tiny Professor Flitwick stood on multiple large books to reach over the top of his desk. She wondered why he wouldn’t just make the legs shorter, he was a wizard after all. The thought made her silently chuckle to herself. Alice Fortescue looked over at Lily and squinted her eyes, wanting to be let in on the joke.

She leaned over to the right to whisper, “I’ll tell you later,” in her ear. Alice nodded and gave a small smile back. Lily and Alice surprisingly got on very well during the first day. They could already talk about almost anything, which they did during the sorting. There was a boy with them named Remus Lupin, but Lily didn’t take much notice of him, he was rather quiet. 

The two other girls in their dorm were named Dorcas and Mary who were both very sweet. Mary was muggleborn like her and they were able to talk about their favorite music and films. Dorcas had a muggle mother and wizard father and rather liked bright colors. The four girls spent the whole night talking, and now it made Lily feel a bit weary. 

“Now, do the swish and flick movement and repeat after me. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ” Flitwick slowly waved his wand in a practiced manner through the air, then signaled the class to repeat. 

“ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ” The twenty-or-so high pitched voices repeated monotonously. Lily muttered the spell and did the wand movements again, this time pointing at the feather. It slightly lifted off the table then floated back down again, leaving her disappointed. By the end of class, the only person to really get their feather floating was a Ravenclaw girl with the last name McKinnon (Flitwick didn’t mention her first). It was safe to say Lily was jealous. She had hoped she would’ve been able to at least get her feather higher than three inches off the table. 

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Lily heard a squeaky voice coming from behind her say.

“I don’t even know what that means!” Came a much more loud and obnoxious voice that was quickly coming closer. Suddenly she was being pushed aside by not one, not two, but _three_ boys. Potter, Black, and a new friend, much shorter and sporting a slightly messy blonde haircut. Lily glared at them as they ran down the hall and shook her head in complete annoyance. 

Remus shifted slightly to the side to not bump into her while grimacing. “Sorry about them,” He muttered. “They’re a bit—“

“Obnoxious? Annoying? Driving me mad? It’s only the second day of being here and I feel like my head is going to explode! And it’s not your fault, don’t take the blame.” Lily shook her head and walked next to Remus. They hadn’t talked much, but she already liked him much better than the other three. He seemed much more...competent. 

“Yeah...Um—I’ve gotta catch up with them. Sorry again!” Remus picked up his pace to a speed walk to get to the other three boys that were likely halfway across the school at that point. Lily slowly shook her head once more when she spotted Severus and a couple of other Slytherin boys.

She beamed and ran up to him, tapping his shoulder. “Hey, Severus! I haven’t seen you at all today, how’s Hogwarts been for you so far?” One of the Slytherins Lily remembered from the sorting, Mulciber, looked at her and snickered, nudging the other Slytherin. Severus pivoted around and smiled for a moment, it was barely even noticeable, before turning back to the Slytherins. He muttered something incoherent to them, causing them to roll their eyes while sneering and walk off.

“Hello, Lily...Hogwarts has been alright! Don’t worry about Mulciber and Avery, I was just telling them to leave us to talk.” Severus looked down at her while the corners of his mouth twitched up. “Who were you just walking with?”

Lily furrowed her eyebrows and frowned, shrugging her shoulders for a moment. “Remus Lupin, he’s just a nice boy in my house. Less insufferable than the other three as well.”

“The other three? Potter, Black, and the one that’s following them around?”

“Following them around? He looked more like he was in front of them! Whole band of misfits they’ll be, I’m telling you!” Lily said exasperatedly, pacing around a few steps as she started to walk away. “I’ve got to be in History of Magic in a couple minutes, so I’ll see you later!” She waved and went the same way Remus did before they parted. 

———

After a terribly dreadful period of History of Magic, as Sirius had described it, they were on to Flying class. Sirius had only been on a broom a few times, and it was easy to say that he wasn’t great. Maybe it was the lack of practice. However, James would not shut up on the way to the field. 

“—this one time I caught the Quaffle after diving thirty feet! Really, I’m a natural at flying, you’ll see.” James boasted, playfully nudging Peter with his elbow. 

“Merlin, Potter, what are you gonna do? Try out for the Quidditch team as a first year?” Sirius rolled his eyes and snorted. He looked over at James when he didn’t laugh, seeing a look of a lightbulb going off in that tiny brain of his. “No—no way! Are you really?” A smile began to form on James’ face, a smug smile. “You absolute dunce! No way are you making it.”

James smirked, holding his arms out wide while stepping onto the field. “What can I say? You’ve just given me the idea! Oh come on, we have Flying class with the _Slytherins?_ ” 

The sun was blindingly bright and there was not a single cloud in the sky, as James described, the best weather for Quidditch. The field was bright green and filled with about ten students waiting for the last few to get there. Sirius made his way to one of the brooms and stood beside it, James standing on his left and Peter on his right. 

Madam Hooch looked for the last couple of missing students when Remus and Evans walked onto the field together. Sirius rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, so his own roommate was hanging out with _her_ now? Did he not see how she was blatantly rude to him before? The audacity of some people! 

“So sorry for being late Madam Hooch, we got a bit lost you see! First day and all,” Evans frowned slightly, looking down at the brooms.

“No worries! We will only have to speed up a little bit, but you all seem very well capable.” Madam Hooch smiled with her hands on her hips. 

“Thank Godric…” He heard James mutter under his breath, Sirius snickered at this boy’s confidence. 

Madam Hooch put her hands together, “Now! I want all of you to stand beside your broom, hold out your hand, and say ‘ _up’!_ ” The broom flew up into her outstretched palm with no effort at all. 

A chorus of ‘ups' started to sound through the class and Sirius thought it looked a bit silly. He stretched out his arm looking down at his broom defiantly. James, Alice Prewett, and a couple Slytherins already got their brooms in their hands. 

“Up!” Sirius shouted at the broom rudely. It didn’t even budge. He groaned and yelled again, “Up!” It twitched slightly, making Sirius’ eyebrows shoot up. “Up!” he said again, only...nicer? The broom shot up into his hand and James cheered him on. Evans got it after him, then a couple Gryffindor girls, then Remus, then Peter, and some other Slytherins he could not be bothered to care about. 

“Perfect!” Madam Hooch clapped, gaining all the children’s attention. “Now, I want you to mount your brooms and kick off the ground when I tell you.” James became extremely giddy, practically jumping on his broom — he stumbled before gripping the handle again. Sirius swung his leg over the side and held tightly. “Alright, is everyone — Mulciber switch your hands or you’ll have a broken limb by the end of this! On the count of three. One. Two. Three!”

———

James purposely kicked off too hard to launch himself up and ended up about fifteen feet higher than everyone else. He was sure to make the team this year, he’d be the youngest Quidditch player in nearly a century! The proud look on his parent’s faces when he showed them awards from being just _so_ bloody good. He looked around the field, feeling the wind blowing in his hair, James hadn’t been on a broom in weeks. He didn’t even notice Madam Hooch yelling for him to come down until he looked down — everyone was staring at him. Not that he really minded. 

“Mister Potter, I will ask you again for you to get down here at once! I did not tell you to go anywhere!” Madam Hooch yelled with a stern look on her face, her lips were in a thin line and her arms crossed. James’ eyes widened and he lowered himself onto the ground in front of where she stood. “That was four times I had to tell you, Potter! You’ve earned yourself a detention on Sunday.”

James gaped and looked around at Sirius who shrugged. “But—but-“

“No buts! Rarely do I ever have to give detentions on the first day, but disobeying my orders five times? Unacceptable!” 

He bowed his head, looking down at his shoes, and nodded. Surely not? He could get out of this somehow. Surely.

  
  


———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is the 39th anniversary of the Marauders being destroyed don’t ask me if I’m okay.


	4. First Year : Missing Werewolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and Peter go on a hunt for Remus while James gets lost going to detention.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1971

“How am I supposed to get out of detention tonight?!” James whined clinging to Peter’s shoulders — he was promptly pushed off with a shrug. James groaned for what seemed the tenth time in that conversation. “I haven’t even gone to McGonagall’s class yet and I already have to attend detention with her? It’s ridiculous!”

Peter let out another loud sigh and pushed the door to their dormitory open, throwing his bag down and flopping down on his bed. He liked James, he really did. But Merlin, did he complain a lot. “I doubt you’ll be getting out of it, I’ve heard McGonagall is strict.”James groaned yet  _ again.  _ Sirius suddenly entered the room, yawning loudly. 

“All right, you lot I — where’s Lupin? I swear he’s never in here!” Sirius scrunched up his nose and sat on the edge of his bed, quickly and intentionally fixing his posture. Sirius was right, though. Remus hadn’t been at dinner and isn’t in the dorm at the moment. Peter thought he was a very strange person, always spending time with Lily Evans or just not being there at all. He was quiet but there was definitely more to him — Peter was sure of it. 

Peter hummed and shook his head. “Did any of you check the common room for him? I wasn’t paying attention as I had this idiot complaining right in my ear.” James gave him a dramatic face full of offense, scoffed, and rolled his eyes. 

Sirius looked very reluctant to say, “Maybe we ask Evans, she seems to always be with him when she’s not with her dorm mates or the one Slytherin.” 

James frowned, Peter still hadn’t gotten the story as to why they hated this guy so much. “Snivellus, yeah. Little greasy punk, he freaks me out!” He crossed his arms and pouted silently for a moment before seemingly coming back to reality. “Godric, what time is it? I’ve got to go at seven-thirty.” He peered over at the clock that displayed seven-fifteen and sprang out of bed, grabbed his books, and aggressively put his robes on. “See you lot later, I’ll tell you how it goes! Good luck on finding Remus, I also have no clue how to get to detention. Bye!” The door slammed shut, leaving Sirius and Peter alone in the room.

There was a silence for a long moment before Sirius took a deep breath. “Do you really want to waste time finding him?” Peter looked at him and shrugged.

“Dunno, he doesn’t seem to like us much anyway. Always stays behind us, changes when we’ve already left, doesn’t sit near us...kind of a bummer, right? I don’t think he’d want us looking for him.” Peter sighed, placing his chin on his left hand. Sirius nodded slowly. The more Peter thought about it, the more upset it would make him. Remus seemed nice, what were they doing wrong? 

“As much as I dislike her, we should still at  _ least  _ ask Evans.” Sirius exaggerated with his hands before standing up. Peter’s eyebrows knitted.

“What do you have against her, anyway? Is it because she’s muggleborn? I know you’re from a pureblood Slytherin family, it wouldn’t be too surprising.” Peter shrugged. How did Sirius make so many enemies in the first week of school?

The other spluttered on his own breath, shaking his head vigorously. “No! No...I’m—I’m trying to be less like that. I didn’t know it was a bad thing to think that way. But no, she was with Snivellus the first day and defended him after he called James stupid! Now she hates  _ me _ for just  _ existing!  _ And she’s taken our roommate from us-” Sirius ranted on and on about his weird hatred for Lily Evans — Peter was completely tuned out. He stood up and walked to the door and scampered down the stairs while Sirius was mid-sentence. 

———

James zoomed down the halls, having not a single clue where he was going. The bright gold-colored walls covered with various moving paintings all looked the same to him. Had he gone this way already? The full moon shone through the windows, turning sections of the gold into silver. James looked behind him and turned a corner, suddenly hitting into something that made him stumble back in surprise. A very wide man with gray hair and green robes stood with a shocked face.

“P-Professor Slughorn! I actually needed help so — thanks for...being there.” James panted, he was completely out of breath after circling the first floor multiple times. “Where’s Professor McGonagall's office? I’ve looked everywhere for it and I might already be late for detention!” 

Slughorn looked shocked at the out of breath Potter standing in front of him. “Detention? On the first weekend? My boy, what could you have possibly done to get that?” James wanted to hit him. Alright maybe not  _ hit _ , only shake some sense into him. He had places to be. “So sorry, just take a right from here then go straight on until the end of the corridor where you will take a left.” Slughorn bent down and pointed in the direction of ‘right’ like James was a dunce. 

James nodded quickly, taking off again. “Thank you, Professor!” He had no idea what time it was, but surely he was over ten minutes late. The corridor looked miles long to him. He burst through McGonagall’s office, nearly collapsing into the door which caused her to jump and spill tea over a couple pieces of parchment. “So-sorry-Professor-got-lost!” James shouted out in one breath, he leaned his head against the door for a moment before closing it behind him. 

The office was filled with a random assortment of objects that were used for transfiguration on shelves. Her desk was parallel with the door, a large red brick fireplace on the right of it. 

McGonagall looked up at him with raised eyebrows over small circle glasses that sat on the tip of her nose. “Quite the first impression you make, Mister Potter. Showing up to the detention you earned on the first day of classes late.” She shook her head, inviting him to sit in front of her — James quickly obliged. 

“I swear it was a mistake, Professor! I got too caught up in the air. You see, I’ve been flying since I was little-“

“Potter, frankly I don't care. I do not get paid to listen to you complain! You are here to serve detention and you will do so. I have not had you yet and therefore will allow you to do work for another class.” McGonagall said sternly and unsmiling. James silenced himself and pulled out his books, quill, and ink. Peter definitely wasn’t joking about her being strict, Merlin he was so screwed. She hated him already! 

———

Lily was curled on the armchair half asleep — she was exhausted. Another night of staying up late and talking with Alice felt like she had another Petunia before they fell apart. Dorcas and Mary sat together playing Wizards Chess, Mary looking completely stunned by the violent pieces of ivory and wood. Alice was in the dormitories sleeping, and Lily realized she needed a good night’s sleep for classes the next day. She stood up and walked over to the girl’s dorm stairs when a loud thundering of footsteps came down from the boy’s. Black and Pettigrew, fantastic, she thought. One more reason to get upstairs faster. 

“Evans!” Black shouted across the common room, jogging over to her. Lily stopped in her tracks and grimaced, turning around towards him. “Have you seen Lupin? He’s not in our dorm and we thought we may as well ask you because you seem to spend  _ so  _ much time with him.” 

Lily snorted and interjected, “I don’t, and even if I did, why would I tell you? And why do you care? You don’t even speak to him! In fact, none of you do!” 

Pettigrew shook his head with much aggression and knitted eyebrows. “No, It’s him that doesn’t talk to us! We’ve tried but all he does is sit with you, how can you blame  _ us  _ for that?!” Lily groaned and started up the stairs to her dorms, she had just about enough of these three boys. 

“No no no, Evans hold on!” Black put a foot on the first step before being launched across the room. He made a loud yelping noise before landing flat on his back. There was a long silence as he laid still with his eyes screwed shut. “Ow...” He squeaked in pain. Lily looked on with wide eyes, her jaw slack. 

The two girls playing Wizard’s Chess were silently snickering, hiding it very poorly. “You know you can’t go up the girl’s stairs, right?” Said Dorcas amusingly while raising her eyebrows.

“Can girls go up the boys' stairs?”

“Yeah.”

“What a bloody stupid rule.” Black tried to lift up his head but his back now felt like someone had whacked it with a large bat — so it smacked back down on the hardwood floor. Pettigrew slowly walked over to where Black laid and reached a hand out. He whined and took it reluctantly, making the whole scene much more dramatic than it needed to be. 

Lily finally decided to continue climbing the staircase up to her dorm room. She entered as quietly as possible as to not wake up Alice and stared out the window at the full moon. The two boys were right though, where was Remus? It was less than an hour until nine o’clock, and if he was caught out of bed he would surely be punished. Maybe he was in the library. 

Lily pushed all her thoughts aside as she laid down in bed and drifted into a much needed sleep. 

———

SEPTEMBER 6, 1971

Sirius sat at the breakfast table next to James, Peter, and Frank — staring at the door waiting for their tiny scarred up housemate. He hadn’t come back the entire night and wasn’t back for breakfast either. So where was he?

“You’re sure  _ none  _ of you have seen him?” Sirius looked hopefully at the other two. James shook his head in between bites of bacon and Peter merely shrugged. Sirius scoffed and leaned back on the bench with his hands.

“Seen who?” Frank asked, not having been involved in the fiasco that was the night before. 

“Remus,” Peter sighed and held his head on his palms. “We were looking for him last night while James was in detention, but couldn’t find him. Even Evans didn’t know where he was! We still have no clue.” 

Frank pursed his lips and tapped his fork on the plate set in front of him. “Have you tried the library? Maybe he fell asleep there. He’s tiny, Madam Pince probably didn’t see him.” 

Sirius gasped and set his drink down, immediately standing up. “You are so smart, Frank, I’ll be right back!” He exclaimed and sped out of the Great Hall. After running down a few corridors, he realized he had no idea where the library was. How could he? He’d only been here for five days and barely got the hang of getting to the Great Hall and back without help. 

Somehow, Sirius had found the courtyard twice and passed by the same painting of a loud man in shiny armor three times before stopping. In reality, he didn’t care that much, he was just curious where he’d gone. 

———

  
  


He opened the door to the dormitory, still feeling weak from the night before. All three of his dorm mates looked up and then looked at each other with their mouths wide open in unison. Remus eyed them and closed the door behind him, trying to make his slight limp the least obvious as he could. 

“Now hold on-“

“No, Sirius.” James interrupted. 

“No no, I wanna know where he’s been gone for over a  _ day! _ A whole day, James!” Black aggressively whispered. However, Remus’ hearing was enhanced and he could hear every word they were saying. 

“Lupin why have you been gone since Sunday afternoon? It’s Monday night! You seemed smart, not the type to skive off class and multiple meals. Are you not hungry?” Black kept spewing out questions with no filter and it gave Remus a headache in his eye. 

He rubbed his temples and loudly sighed. “Personally, I don’t think you need to know where I’ve been. But since you’re so  _ curious _ I’ve been in the Hospital Wing. I had a terrible stomach ache before dinner last night and decided to stay there for the night.” It was a good enough lie he created while actually in the Hospital Wing. It was quite fun making up stories and excuses with the Healer, Madam Pomfrey. 

Black looked terribly underwhelmed by his response. “The whole day today too?” Remus nodded. 

“That’s why I still have a tiny limp, my stomach is still getting better.” 

Black looked unsatisfied like he should’ve been expecting Remus to spill every secret about him right then and there. James seemed to notice the tense situation and quickly got up to turn the lights off. Peter was already under the covers with the curtains closed tightly around the bedposts. 

Remus got into bed as well, wondering how the  _ hell  _ he was going to keep making excuses for seven years. It seemed like an impossible feat to pull off. Surely he’d become a pathological liar or something along those lines. He put the warm blanket over his shoulders, trying to forget the night before that his muscles were still tense from. He was nearly asleep, his eyelids felt like weights — when his bed drapes were slowly opened by the familiar darker-skinned spectacled boy. He outstretched an arm with a large wrapper in his hand, a chocolate bar in fact. 

“I-I thought you might like this. Dunno if Madam Pomfrey gives you food but you  _ did  _ say you liked chocolate and I had some in my trunk — there's a preserving charm too! If you...you know...want to save it.” He smiled a genuine but a bit of an awkward grin. Remus didn’t know what came over him but he suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of joy. 

Remus beamed and looked James in the eyes, accepting the bar from his outstretched hand, and placing it on his bedside table. “Thank you, James.”

James lingered for a second before nodding and shuffling back into his own bed. Remus didn’t know how much he liked Peter, and Black was a completely different story — but James? He was the one who invited him into the train compartment and the one who corrected Black in the first place. Why had he been so strange towards James when he’d been nothing but kind to him? Remus smiled to himself, knowing he just made his second friend.

  
  


———


	5. First Year : The Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small rivalry comes to an end.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1971

“ALL RIGHT EVERYONE, UP YOU GET!” James hollered at the crack of dawn, earning loud groans from his dorm mates who were peacefully asleep. They should be used to it already, James thought. Peter rolled out of bed and plopped on the floor like a ball, still half asleep. Remus eventually yawned and sat up, but Sirius wouldn’t get up at all. He was definitely awake, though.

James buttoned up his shirt and walked over to his bed, slowly pulling the curtains open to not scare him this time. Sirius was curled up facing away from James, looking like he’d been awake for hours already. James frowned, he probably just had a bad sleep.

“C’mon, Sirius. We have to go to breakfast!” He encouraged, tapping Sirius’ shoulder a couple times for good measure. He turned over to look at James and sighed deeply, getting out on the other side. Remus and Peter were all ready to leave, books and everything. “You two go down, we’ll be there in a minute.” James nodded to them. 

Sirius was especially moody today, James thought. He was barely eating or talking, which was definitely different. In fact, he may as well be coming down with some kind of illness. 

“Hey, Sirius, you all right?” James leaned over the table on his elbows and propped his head on his hands. Sirius shrugged and pouted his lips. Basically meaning no.

“Yeah, just not feeling it today, you know?” He muttered, tapping his fingers together. 

“Perk up, mate! There’s nothing to be sad about today,” Peter smiled and nudged Sirius with a piece of toast, earning a small grin from him. 

Sirius rubbed his nose and smiled a bit, not looking at any of them. “Guess so,” 

James turned to Remus, who was purposely not looking at Sirius. In the past couple of weeks, Remus started to sit with the three of them. In fact, James and Remus got along very well now and he was thankful he gave him the chocolate that one night. Peter and Remus were mere acquaintances, which James could live with. But Sirius and Remus were strange — always making side comments or ignoring each other completely. He didn’t understand why the two of them disliked each other so much. 

  
  


Letting out a small breath, James doodled a snitch on his parchment during Transfiguration. Surprisingly enough, McGonagall was much nicer during class than during detention. He just found himself completely disinterested in Transfiguration. He yawned obnoxiously and leaned back in his chair, watching his tiny snitch fly around the paper. 

His first class with McGonagall had actually gone horribly, to put it nicely. Sirius would occasionally kick James’ feet for the fun of it and James would kick him back. This led to James accidentally pushing him so hard his chair fell sideways with him in it. Another detention for James it was! All because of Sirius. James didn’t talk to Sirius for twenty-five minutes because of it.

“Mister Potter?” McGonagall asked, snapping James out of his daze of staring at his made-up snitch. Everyone including Sirius was looking at him. James blinked a couple of times and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“...Yes?” He replied slowly, waiting for the worst. 

She walked up to his desk and picked up the paper, then turned to Sirius’ empty one. “Have you two been paying attention?” Sirius nodded blankly. “What is the incantation for a switching spell?” Sirius turned to James who shrugged, they were so screwed. McGonagall sighed and muttered to them, “It pains me to constantly be putting my own students in detention, please do better. Tomorrow night in the same room, Potter and Black.”

“It’s almost like you  _ want  _ detention!” Remus exclaimed as they walked out of the classroom. James let out a long exhale and mussed up his hair.

“Alright, listen, it’s not  _ really  _ my fault! I just get easily distracted and—and so does Sirius! Not my fault.” James thought he heard something like “ridiculous” be muttered under Remus’ breath, but he couldn’t be sure. Sirius was still sulking to the far left of him, Peter in between the two of them. James just couldn’t place  _ why  _ he was so upset. It wasn’t like this was his first detention. 

The four of them made their way back to the common room before dinner, each feeling equally exhausted. Remus went up to the dorm with Peter while James and Sirius stayed down. Sirius subconsciously had a hand on his pocket that had a large square indent. 

“I’ll make tea, how ‘bout that?” James gave a small smile, turning to the fireplace and the kettle that sat beside it. The fire crackled and set a soft orange glow on the two of them. Sirius sighed and shook his head at himself.

“Listen, James, I’m fine. I just don’t think you’d understand what I’m dealing with right now.” Sirius mumbled, staring into the flames. 

“Tell me then! I’m sure I can still give you advice.” James poured cold water into the kettle then set it over the fire. 

Sirius paused for a moment. “How are your parents? Are they nice?”

James didn’t want to go overboard about how his parents are probably the best people in his life, it would probably make Sirius feel all the worse. So he only said, “Yeah, they’re great, really. I’m thankful for it.”

Sirius hummed quietly. “You get to call them Mum and Dad? Mother and Father?” James furrowed his eyebrows and frowned slightly. How bad were these people?

“Of course, do you not get to?”

Sirius shrugged. “Not exactly. They told me it was too childish for a boy my age and then I stopped. I was about seven at the time.” He took a long pause again. “What about when you do something wrong?”

James put two tea bags in two separate mugs as the water started to boil. “Well, I’d get told off for it, and then I would try to not do it again.” Sirius looked at him, shocked and seemingly even more upset than before. The kettle started to whistle a high-pitched tone and steam came out from the top.

“Really? That’s all? She told me it was normal…” He quieted down at the end, talking to himself. James poured the steaming water in the mugs and set them down. 

“Told you what was normal?” James asked with concern. He looked into Sirius’ eyes that looked full of disbelief and almost...tears? He shook his head and leaned back, covering his face out of embarrassment. “Sirius…” James pleaded. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but you can trust me.” He removed the tea bags and stirred both drinks, adding two lumps of sugar to his. “How many?” He asked quietly.

Sirius looked vacantly at James, “None, and really I just don’t think I can talk about it.” He shook his head and grabbed the tea from James, taking a sip and scrunching his face from the bitterness of it. 

He nodded slowly, sipping his own tea, seeing a small figure out of the corner of his eye. He glanced without turning his head and saw Remus for barely a split second as he was already back upstairs. That’s definitely strange, he thought. 

“That’s fine, I’m not going to force you,” James reassured him. “Are you coming down for dinner tonight?” Sirius shrugged, squinting his eyebrows. “That’s okay too, you don’t have to. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see you, James. Thank you, by the way — for this...and the tea.” He smiled, setting it down on the small table next to him. James nodded, going up the stairs to put his books away. 

———

Remus felt ill, not in the way he normally does, it was more internally this time. He thought of Black as a snarky stuck up pureblooded git, but was that just what he wanted to believe? He didn’t  _ mean  _ to eavesdrop, he was only coming down to go to dinner, but now he didn’t feel hungry at all. In the past nineteen days, Black had already started changing from the person he was on the train, but Remus hadn’t let it go. It felt horribly ironic for him to judge someone like that.

It wasn’t like his parents were bad people because they definitely weren’t. It just took some time for them to get used to and handle the condition he had. Remus and his father had always been at least a little distant, after all, it was  _ his  _ words that caused the whole problem in the first place. But hearing Black speak of his own family on the verge of tears made him sick to his stomach. But what was he to do? Talk to him about it? It wasn’t like they were friends. It seemed completely unreasonable, but maybe that's what they needed. A common ground. 

James and Peter were already at dinner along with almost every other Gryffindor, what could go wrong? Remus took a deep breath and walked down the spiral staircase to see Black sitting in the same spot he saw him last. Staring blankly into the fire that set a radiant orange on his face, making his features look much softer. There was a cold cup of tea on the table next to him. 

Remus did a bold move and walked into the room, pretending to not really notice him there. He sat down on the armchair across the carpet from the other and sighed. Black glanced up at Remus, then back into the fire. 

“You...all right?” Remus started, moving his legs into a criss-cross position on the chair. 

“What do you care for? All _ you  _ do is ignore me and act like I’m not even there.” Black crossed his arms and leaned back. This was gonna be harder than he thought. 

“It was hard not to when my first impression of you was giving me weird looks and saying horrible words-“

“I’m trying to get better at that! I didn’t know, okay? I really am trying to be a better person than I was raised to be, even if it slips out sometimes. Didn’t know you were one to hold a grudge!” Black interrupted, raising his eyebrows and leaning back in his chair. There was a small but awkward silence as Remus gathered up the courage to speak again.

“I know...and I’m sorry...Sirius. I was just hoping we could make amends or something.” Remus played with his fingers a bit, now feeling extremely nervous.

Sirius nodded his head slowly. “I can do that,” he smiled slightly. Remus smiled back, thanking Merlin that Sirius wasn’t seriously cross with him. “And I’m sorry for looking strangely at you on the train, I’ve just never seen someone with facial scars before — sorry if that came out rude.” 

“It’s fine, I was quick to judge you anyway.” Remus’ eyes turned to the cold abandoned tea that sat on the table. “Is that yours?” He asked despite already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, too bitter.” Sirius scrunched his nose at the thought of his cold bitter drink. 

“Well, you just like things a bit sweeter, then. Maybe add some sugar and milk next time.” Remus offered, his words unknowingly making Sirius overthink himself. Because maybe Remus would understand.

“I didn't want to show James, because I thought he would think I’m weak. I know he wouldn’t say it — but I just feel like he would think it, even if he didn’t want to. I just have a feeling you would understand better than he would.” Sirius sniffled, pulling a large opened envelope out of his robe pocket. “I know we just made up, but I have a weird intuition that you keep secrets well.” He handed the letter to Remus. 

Remus smiled internally, he had  _ no  _ idea. He carefully held onto the envelope, pulling the letter out.

——

_ Sirius Orion Black, _

_ I am absolutely disgusted by what you have done. It is dishonorable, being the first Gryffindor in an all Slytherin family. Humiliating, even. Everything I have taught you has been thrown away as if it was worth nothing. You are now associated with mudbloods and blood traitors, we are above them, and yet you act as their equal. We are the laughing stock of pureblood families because of you. You are a disgrace to the family name. You will come straight home for the holiday break and be punished severely.  _

_ Walburga Black _

_ —— _

If Remus hadn’t already felt sick, he definitely did now. This was his mother? Mothers are supposed to be the kindest people in your life, always there for you when you need them. He looked up at Sirius whose hands were shaking and feet were fidgeting on the ground. 

He had too many questions, but the last sentence was what bothered him most of all. “Punished severely? What does she mean by that? Not...physically...right?” Sirius shook his head, curling into a tight ball. Remus couldn’t believe how much Sirius already trusted him. That was until Sirius sat straight up again with tears threatening his eyes. 

“Yes but...I don’t think I can say,” He sighed, dabbing the teardrops from his eyes with his sleeve. “Just know, it doesn’t feel great,” Remus froze, surely not. He already hated this woman. He nodded very slowly, afraid to hear the next part. “Usually, it's only for a few seconds, it still feels horrible, though. But...I’ve never done anything like this, I-I don’t know what to do.” 

Sirius put his head in his hands, pulling through his own hair. Remus swallowed a lump in his throat, trying not to imagine anything bad, and blinked. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this...but I do know what it’s like to be seen as a disgrace. It sucks, it really does. Is there any way that you can get out of it?”

“Out of what? My family? Not if I want to be disowned, I’ve seen it happen before. My cousin, Andromeda was disowned for marrying a muggleborn. I’ve been banned from speaking to her.” 

A spark went off in Remus’ head. “Well, maybe that’s just what you need! Now that you can send letters wherever you want, maybe you could send one to her and ask how she dealt with it.” He suggested. 

“That’s...actually quite a good idea. Thank you, Remus.” Sirius grinned and sniffled again, rubbing his eyes. Remus smiled at Sirius saying his name for the first time. He handed back the letter and they sat there in their now comfortable silence. 

“James wouldn’t think you’re weak, by the way. In fact, I think he would think of you as strong. I think you are,” Remus hoped the message would get to Sirius that he should absolutely tell James and maybe even Peter if he felt like it — it would bring them all closer together anyway. 

Frank and one of his friends, Eric Jones, entered the portrait hole, laughing loudly about something that he couldn’t understand. Lily climbed in with Alice and gave a sharp glance to Remus and Sirius sitting across from each other — Remus paid her no mind, maybe they would talk about it later. James and Peter came running in later and they both came to a full stop seeing the two who were now in an easy conversation.

James knitted his brows and looked between Remus and Sirius carefully. “Did we...miss something?”

“Eh, you could say that.” Sirius looked to Remus and grinned. Another friend for the list, Remus thought to himself.

———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter was good! Thanks for almost 200 reads it means a lot !!


	6. First Year : Ice Breaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Marauders break the mischief-making ice and plan their first prank.

OCTOBER 2, 1971

The calm autumn breeze gently blew through Lily’s bright auburn hair as she leaned against a tree with a book in her lap. She sighed quietly, watching the crystal waters shimmer in the sunshine. The huge castle of a school cast a large shadow across the courtyard, making it easier for her to read. Her moment of tranquility soon came to an end when four boys ran across the grass, playing some kind of chasing game. Lily scoffed and looked back down at the paper. How did Remus get caught up with them? He was supposed to be the one Gryffindor boy her year she could handle. He still was, but what had happened? She’d seen Remus talking with Sirius (who she thought he disliked) a few weeks back, and suddenly they’re all best friends! Unbelievable, really. 

A darker shadow came upon Lily, she looked up to see Severus standing in front of her. She smiled and patted the space next to her. “Hi, Severus! We haven’t talked in a week or so.”

“Hi, I was just wondering how you were doing.” Severus sat down, staring at her straight on. 

“Oh, I’m alright. I was just catching up on this book, it’s a muggle one, so I don’t think you’d know it.” She showed the cover of the short book reading ‘ _Frog and Toad Are Friends’._ Severus furrowed his eyebrows and curled his lip a bit at the muggle book.

“What’s it about?” He asked monotonously, crossing his arms. 

“Well, it’s a very short book, but it’s about these two best friends, Frog and Toad. They go on a bunch of adventures together in the Spring and are inseparable. I’ve always loved this story!” Lily smiled fondly, remembering her Father reading it to her when she was much younger. 

Severus nodded, looking uninterested in the book. “That sounds…nice,” he gave a small smile. He turned towards Black, Potter, Pettigrew, and Remus and sneered. “They’re quite...absurd. Aren’t they?” Lily simply shrugged.

“I’ve already told you that Remus is sweet. The other three, I’m not actually sure about. They just seem like obnoxious boys to me.” 

Severus scoffed and glanced back at Lily, “Lupin hangs out with them, what does that make him?”

“I don’t know...they’re all roommates so it _does_ make sense,” She said pointedly, it was unfair that Severus could talk about her own friend so poorly. “I think—what?” Lily asked, noticing Severus looking straight ahead. She turned and saw Potter making his way over to them. “Oh no.”

“All right, Evans?” Potter asked, sitting down next to her, Lily moved to the right away from him. “I was just thinking, we shouldn’t be arguing so much-“

“We barely argue, in fact, we barely talk at all. Why are you here?” Lily raised her eyebrows, knowing he probably had something planned. Potter didn’t even respond to her, he looked over at her lap where her book sat.

“Can I see that?” He asked in a loud voice. Lily deeply exhaled and handed it over. He looked at the cover and then the back of it. “How are the frogs walking?” Potter questioned while flipping through the pages.

Lily surveyed him, unsure if he was serious or not. He seemed absolutely serious. “I don't know? How do you have ghosts?”

Potter scrunched his forehead up, “I don’t have ghosts, wouldn’t I be haunted then? Oh, hey Snivellus. Didn’t see you there!” There it was, just what Lily was waiting for. Severus sneered and stood up.

“Oh, don’t go! Potter, please give me the book back and go over to your friends.” Lily spoke to him like a child, he didn’t really seem to notice, though.

“I thought we were friends?” He pouted and looked dramatically hurt like a pleading puppy. Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head. 

He gave her another sad look and handed the book back to her. Potter got on his feet and started to walk back to the other three when Severus stuck a foot out to trip him. 

“Hey! You nearly tripped me, you git!” He snapped. 

Severus smirked and made a gesture, “Hurts to get a taste of your own medicine, doesn’t it?” Lily glared at both of them. 

Potter lingered for a second longer and walked away back to Black, Remus, and Pettigrew — who were all staring at them. Remus looked especially annoyed by Severus’ behavior. 

“Don’t be like that, Severus.” Lily frowned and nudged him with her elbow. “It’s rude.”

“Oh, and Potter can do the same thing?” Severus retaliated, pushing himself up.

“No! I never said that. What he did was unacceptable as well—where are you going?” 

———

“No, Quidditch is prohibited for first years, Mister Potter!” Madam Hooch said sternly while cleaning up the brooms from the last class. 

James quickly tried to catch up with her as she speed-walked across the field. “Oh, come on! I’m really good, I swear! Surely there’s been first years on the Quidditch team before?”

“Yes, and they were prodigies to be able to beat out every other year! Your track record with detention is abominable and you’re too young. I’m sorry Potter but I have to decline your request. Try out next year, and we’ll see then.” Madam Hooch placed the school brooms back in their designated places in the shed, not even caring to look at James. James sighed and looked down at his feet.

“Okay, thanks anyway, Ma’am.” He mumbled before walking sulkily into the castle. Peter was waiting around the corner while Remus and Sirius were already off to lunch in the Great Hall. 

Peter saw the disappointed look on James’ face and gave him a reassuring pat on the back. “Don’t worry about it, mate. Next year you’ll definitely get it, I know you will!” James nodded, slightly cheered up. Peter always knew what to say to make people feel better, even if it was just a small comment. That was something James really liked about him, he always made people feel included. 

Entering the Great Hall, James saw Remus grinning and shaking his head at something Sirius had just said. It still baffled him how they got so friendly so fast. After weeks of pretending the other didn’t exist, it was completely out of nowhere. Peter and James went to _one_ dinner alone and suddenly they’re... friends? Neither of them would say what happened that night and James supposed it was for the best. He sat down next to Sirius and started piling an assortment of sandwiches on his plate.

Sirius looked between the four of them. “So I was thinking—“ 

“Oh, this can’t be good,” Remus interrupted, getting a rude glare from Sirius. 

He straightened himself, looking quite offended and started again, “Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted...” Sirius gave Remus another look, “I think we should sneak out after hours—“

“No way!” Peter interjected loudly, “Do you want _another_ detention?”

Remus shook his head in disbelief, “See what did I say? Sirius thinking is bad!” 

Sirius put his hands in his hands and exhaled deeply. He paused for a good fifteen seconds before looking back up at James. “ _Anyway_ … as I was _saying!_ I think we should pull a prank. We do it after hours so no one knows it’s us—“

“He really _does_ want another detention!” Peter made a gesture and let his hands fall on the table with a thump. Sirius looked on the verge of exploding after being interrupted three times. 

“James? What do you think?” 

James thought about it for a moment — cause sure he hated detention, but pulling pranks sounded _fun._ There definitely hasn't been enough fun this year so far, and who said that would get caught?

“I like it, I’m in.” James smiled, earning a satisfied grin from Sirius who leaned back in his chair while Peter and Remus simply sighed. 

“I’ll be sitting this one out.” Remus raised both hands, struggling a bit to stand up and back away from the table. Peter soon followed, leaving James and Sirius alone — besides the hundreds of other students, of course. 

Sirius turned back to James and noticed they were both beaming with a glint of disobedience in their eyes. “So, Potter. How are we planning to break the mischief-making ice?”

  
  


James spread a large scroll on their dorm floor and held it down with multiple inkwells while Sirius dropped a multitude of books on the floor he checked out from the library. Remus and Peter observed in utter shock.

“Are you really going all out for this?” Remus ridiculed, peeking over the top of his own book. 

Sirius nodded, beginning to flip the pages of the different charms and jinxes they could use. “It’s called starting off with a bang, my friend!” He grinned, looking at Remus, then scanned through more pages. 

“When are you going to do it anyway?” Peter questioned, moving over to sit next to James. 

James shrugged, “No idea, if we were to be using a spell then we’d have to practice it.”

Sirius suddenly let out a loud yelp and scrambled over to show James. “A lot of these seem complicated but what about _Glisseo_? It turns stairs into slides.” 

“No way, I can't do that! That’s way too advanced, maybe an easier one?” James suggested, feeling sorry for turning down Sirius’ offer. That was something they could probably pull off in a few years, but definitely not in the first year. Sirius sighed and went back to eyeing the paper. 

“Colovaria.” A small voice said.

Everyone in the room looked at where the voice came from and landed on Remus. His book was now dogeared and shut on the bed and he was watching the three of them on the floor intently. 

Sirius knitted his eyebrows and frowned. “What's that do?” He seemed a little offended that he wasn’t going to be picking the spell. Remus slid himself onto the ground beside Peter and Sirius and grabbed the book from Sirius’ lap. He flipped to the letter ‘C’ and scanned for the charm — Remus pointed to it, then handed the book back to Sirius. “Colovaria—changes the color of an object...you couldn’t have just said that?”

James snickered and pointed at Remus, “He likes his dramatics! Who knew? And to think only a few weeks ago you didn’t even want to talk to us!”

Remus looked down at his legs and flushed, “Well, I’m just getting used to the whole ‘friend’ thing.” He pushed himself back on his bed but left his legs dangling off the edge. Peter hummed in acknowledgment.

“Well, you have us now!” Peter smiled, making a gesture to the four of them with his hands. 

Sirius was busy repeatedly muttering ‘ _Colovaria’_ , only managing to successfully make a couple spark-like splatters. James was brainstorming what they would use the spell for, and Peter had no luck so far. Remus decided he wanted to learn the charm anyway, it might be useful. 

Sirius sighed in frustration as his incantation made the rug have randomly placed color splotches, overall nothing impressive. He glanced back at the book, making sure he got the movement right — everything looked fine. Why couldn’t he get it? 

“Maybe if you say it a bit more clearly, that might work,” Remus said, gaining Sirius’ attention. 

“Well alright genius, how did you know the spell anyway?” Sirius asked sarcastically, playfully rolling his eyes.

“Read it in the charms textbook.” He replied simply.

Sirius gaped, “You read the _textbook?_ ” Surely he was insane, Sirius couldn’t even get through the first ten pages! Remus nodded. “How much free time do you have?”

He paused, “Well...not as much as you’d think. But I use it wisely.” Remus solemnly said, twiddling with his thumbs.

“Oi!” James called. “If you two are done, I’ve figured out an idea!” The three of them turned their heads to the specky boy with an ink stained hand. “Does anyone know where the kitchen is?” Remus looked at Peter who looked at Sirius who looked at James, and they all shook their heads. “Well, maybe we could find it! I’m sure it’s not that hard to spot. Maybe we could ask a house elf.”

“What's your grand plan anyway?” Sirius tried to read what James wrote upside down to no luck, James’ handwriting was near illegible. 

“I was getting to that! So, when we find the kitchens, we use _Colovaria_ on all the food! It’ll all taste the same, but we can make it a gross color, it would be hilarious! Imagine Dumbledore’s face when he bites into chicken and it’s _green_!”

Sirius nodded as a smile slowly spread across his face, “I like that! Hey, Remus are you sure the kitchens haven’t popped up in one of your _textbooks_?”

Remus scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Oh, shove off,” He said while nudging Sirius with his foot. 

“I say, we all split up tomorrow night on different floors and try to find it. We meet up back at the Great Hall entrance after we’ve searched and either found nothing or found it,” James smirked mischievously. 

Peter’s eyes widened, “What if we get caught?!”

“Yeah, I didn’t agree to detentions, I was just coming up with the ideas, you tosser!” Remus whined and threw his hands up, falling back onto the bed.

“More volunteers means more coverage, and if we have _less_ people we’ll find it in a matter of _weeks_!” Sirius playfully punched Peter on the arm, who gave a very offended look back. 

Remus shot back up from the bed, “Weeks?! How long are you planning on trying to find the kitchens? Why don’t we just come up with a better plan where we won’t get in trouble?” 

Sirius sighed and shook his head, pushing himself onto the bed next to Remus, “There would be no thrill! Where’s the fun in that?”

“You—When did you become so adventurous?” Remus put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples for effect, “When we all met you at least _some_ restraint—mind you, that was only a month ago.”

“Well, I did get a letter from a certain person and dare I say it has enlightened me,” Sirius spoke quietly and slightly elbowed Remus. He gave him a look that said _‘I’ll tell you about it later’_ and dropped back down to the floor. 

James was eyeing the two of them and shaking his head after he’d just been interrupted for a solid minute, “You two...ridiculous really,” he muttered. “Anyway, who’s in on the plan?”

“I am!” Sirius was giddy again, shooting his hand up. Peter sighed and nodded somewhat reluctantly. All three looked over to Remus who was sitting with his arms crossed.

Feeling eyes on him again, which he hated — Remus let out an exasperated sigh and threw an arm up. “Fine! Fine. I’ll do it.” 

Sirius jumped up and whooped, “Our first big plan together, how exciting!”

———

OCTOBER 3, 1971 

“Sirius you take the ground floor, Peter the second, Remus the third, I’ll take the fourth,” James plotted in the common room. They were huddled in a circle, each with a piece of parchment and muggle crayons from Remus. “We each take these and plot down the kitchen or anything interesting.”

They broke up the huddle and started out the portrait hole when a voice stole their attention. “You four! What are you doing?” Lily Evans sped towards them with an accusing look on her face. “It’s almost after hours!”

James smirked and shook his head, “We are very well aware, Evans. In fact, we plan to stay out almost the whole night! Nice seeing you,” He said quickly before giggling and speeding out the portrait, followed by Sirius and Peter.

“Remus! I thought you were better than them!” Lily threw her arms up exasperatedly. 

“I wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea, but it’s just a bit of fun, Lily.” Remus shrugged and smiled, hopping out of the room. 

Remus quickly caught up with the others at the Great Hall to say their ‘good lucks’ and then went on his way. The full moon was tomorrow, and his limbs had been sore the entire day — not that he let anyone notice. Now that he was able to let the act down, Godric he was in pain. Running down six flights then running back up two was taking a horrible toll on his knees. Remus leaned against the wall to catch himself and rub at his aching joints to no avail. He walked with stiff limbs down the halls. 

The Hospital Wing was on this floor, Remus thought, maybe he could ask her for a potion. He knew where it was well enough despite going only once, he reckoned it would be important to remember. But then he would be caught after hours, and what a mess that would put him in! Remus groaned internally and grimaced while going past the Hospital Wing. 

On his expedition, he found a trophy room, an armor gallery, an empty corridor, a large ugly statue, and some classrooms. Nothing really of importance, he thought. Remus did decide to mark them down just in case, though. 

———

Peter skipped along the hallway, marking down every little detail he could see. Most of this floor was just bathrooms, various tapestries, and the Defense classroom — nothing really of interest. Peter thought that a map of this place would make everything _so_ much easier, who made it so complicated? 

He was a bit out of breath from scanning the floor top to bottom multiple times. Peter leaned against a tapestry to catch himself — only he didn’t. He yelped as he fell straight through it onto a narrow staircase, grappling onto the wall for balance. 

Peter was in complete shock, standing still for a moment before regaining his composure. He hummed and continued down the stairs, maybe this was the kitchen! He thumped down eagerly, this would be his big moment! Suddenly, the stair disappeared right below him and caused him to fall through and smack his face right on the stone. 

“I got the worst floor, didn't I?” Peter said, now stuck between two stairs and in pain. 

———

James was not the most stealthy person, there were various portraits on the fourth floor that kept telling him to stop bumping into things. When he made light from his wand they would yell at him to turn it off. He was rightly pissed! Surely he would be caught by Filch, they were making such a racket. 

After stumbling into another suit of armor, he was met with a mirror — a randomly placed one in the hallway. James found that he was completely alone now, with no pestering portraits to tell him off. He said a quick ‘ _lumos’_ and walked closer to it. His hair was all scruffy and his Mother would definitely be poor about it. 

It seemed like a completely normal mirror, but something in him said to check behind. James looked around for anyone and tried to pull the mirror off the wall, desperately hoping his intuition was right. At long last, it became disconnected from the stone wall and—

“Blimey…” James whispered, setting the glass aside. A long passageway leading to somewhere he couldn’t see. James pulled out his parchment and scribbled the floor layout, making sure to label ‘ _mirror_ ’ and _‘PASSAGEWAY?’._

It certainly looked long, and James didn’t think he had enough time to explore it that night. He placed the mirror back on the wall and started to run down the stairs as a soft purring could be heard behind him. James turned around and saw a dust-colored cat that looked as angry as a cat could get.

“Uh oh,” James muttered, and he ran. 

———

Sirius had been given the biggest floor out of all of them, the ground floor. He quickly realized this included the Courtyards, the Great Hall, every single corridor, the greenhouses, and more. 

“They couldn’t have two people on this?” Sirius whispered as he dragged his way through the halls, looking around with a lit wand. When they all got back, he would definitely complain and ask one of the others to help tomorrow. 

Despite the large size of the area he was to cover, there wasn’t much at all. The Courtyards were simple enough, usually with long stone halls surrounding a grassy area with a fountain in the center. Not much to see. There were many armor stands and four hourglasses with colored gems in them. Red with the least, yellow in third, green in second, and blue in first. They were the house points, as Sirius soon realized. No wonder Gryffindor was in dead last, with James and Sirius constantly losing them points. 

He hummed in disappointment and continued across the corridors, making note of only the big paintings and tapestries. Who really cared about the details? Who would notice anyway? Sirius stumbled across a door with scratches and other large dents in it, thinking it must be something interesting, he walked right in. The room was completely devoid of people but did contain a desk, many drawers, and...chains? Sirius knitted his eyebrows and scrunched up his nose, this was _definitely_ important somehow. 

“Another caught in the act, are we?” A horrible voice drawled behind him. Sirius turned around and saw the caretaker Filch, who was holding James by the collar and accompanied by a hideous cat. James’ eyes were very wide, obviously not expecting Sirius. Filch dropped James into a chair at the desk, “In my office, sneaking around like a bunch of marauders! I won’t have it...if only Dumbledore still let me do the old punishments…” He spoke to himself.

Sirius eyed James who looked slightly smug and sat down in the chair beside him. He was hiding a smile very poorly and took a deep breath, “So sorry, Sir. We just got a bit lost on our way to the common room! There are just so many _rooms_ in this castle that we can’t keep track of where we’re going! Please, oh dear Merlin, believe us!” James monologued dramatically, slapping his hand onto his forehead and slumping down in the chair. 

Sirius snorted and hid his face in his hands, desperately trying not to start howling of laughter. Filch definitely didn’t believe them for even a second, they were so screwed!

“Very funny, I ought to give you a month's detention for that. I oughta….” Filch snarled, pulling out James and Sirius’ files. “James Potter, seven offenses. Sirius Black, four offenses. All in the first month of school! My my…” Filch muttered. 

James leaned back with a close-lipped smile, impressed with his stats. “We’ll just have to do better next month, Sir,” He said, definitely not meaning ‘better’ in the way Filch thought he did. 

———

Remus and Peter had decided to go back up the common room after neither Sirius or James showed up at the Great Hall. They flopped down on their beds, Remus letting out a sigh of relief, his entire body felt like it was falling apart. 

“-and then I _fell!_ Twice! There’s this weird disappearing step on the staircase behind the tapestry,” Peter complained, he’d been stuck between the steps for nearly fifteen minutes. 

Remus smiled a little, wondering what the other two had gotten up to. His curiosities were soon answered as James and Sirius burst through the door laughing so hard they were almost on top of each other. Remus sat up and smiled at their ridiculousness, what idiots, he thought.

“Remus, Peter, you—you are not going to _believe_ what happened!” Sirius sputtered out between wheezes as he clutched the bedpost for support. “So we get caught by Filch—“

“ _What?!”_ Remus groaned.

“No no it’s good, I promise! I find Filch’s office, and suddenly he’s lurking behind me and he has James with him. So I’m all like ’bloody hell, mate what did you do?’ And James just starts _monologuing!_ “ Sirius gasped as another laugh wracked through him. “So Filch was about to give us detention for a whole month. It’s still fine, Remus don’t worry, there’s this Poltergeist named Peeves, he comes in the room and starts throwing raspberries at the old man! We run out as he’s distracted and now we’re here,” Sirius finished with both his arms flared outwards. 

“We are _definitely_ doing this tomorrow,” James jumped on his bed and sat up, hugging his knees. 

That’s definitely not good, Remus thought. What was he supposed to tell them? He hadn’t thought of a new excuse yet. “I can’t, I—I have to go home tomorrow,” Remus grimaced at the horrible lie. He could work off this.

“Home?” Peter asked. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Remus shrugged, “Dumbledore said I’m allowed to because my...my Mum. She’s fallen ill and—and I have to go visit her.” 

Sirius frowned, “Aw mate, that sucks. When will you be back?”

“Probably the sixth, don’t worry! Keep going on your nightly hunts for the kitchen,” Remus smiled at the three of them. 

“Oh, we definitely will!” James grinned, nodding at Remus, “Wait, I didn’t even tell you about this mirror I found!”

———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was pretty long and it’s one of my favorites I’ve wrote so far so I hope you enjoyed!!


	7. Year One : The First Prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Marauders do their first act of widespread mischief.

OCTOBER 31, 1971

After two weeks of trying to find the kitchens, it was Peter who found it in a secret room in the dungeons. It was completely accidental as well — he was dragging his hand along the hall and just so happened to do it along a painting with a bowl of fruit. It almost swung open in Peter’s face, and he was greeted by dozens of house elves. 

That night, Peter told the three others about the kitchen behind the paintings, and since then, they’d been practicing the Colovaria Charm. Sirius started doing it during class times, and even changed Snape’s potion color by accident, giving him an automatic fail. Of course Sirius was given detention for it, but he thought it was worth it. All four of them managed to perfect the spell by the time it was the last day of October.

“I saw we do it tonight, at the Halloween feast,” James smirked, leaning back in his seat. “They’ll never know what’s happened!” 

Sirius looked up and grinned cheekily, nodding his head. “You bloody genius, it’s perfect! I say we tell the house elves that we’re just adding to the Halloween spirit.”

Remus appreciated Sirius’ enthusiasm, it was much better than the moping mess he was over a month ago. The night they had first decided to do the prank, Sirius told Remus what Andromeda wrote to him while in the common room.

“I told you I’d show you,” Sirius had smiled, handing the letter to Remus.

“No, actually, you merely raised your eyebrows and nodded, didn’t say a thing. I got it though,” Remus unfolded the parchment and held it out.

_Dear Cousin,_

_Thank you for reaching out to me. I’m so glad I’m able to speak to a family member that doesn’t hate me, especially my favorite cousin (don’t tell Regulus). I think it’s wonderful that you’re doing what you want, because that’s the most important thing in the whole world. You’re so very brave, Sirius. You should never change your beliefs because of your Mother, just as I didn’t mine. I would still proceed with caution around her, however. I know she’s a dangerous woman. When you get back home for the Holidays, don’t try to start anything._

_At Hogwarts, you are free to do whatever you feel like. I’m perfectly aware that my sister, Narcissa is at Hogwarts with you but I do hope you haven’t crossed paths with her. Besides her and her soon-to-be fiancé, Lucius Malfoy, you have the freedom to be yourself. Don’t get caught on what Walburga might think, because she wouldn’t know. Being who you want to be is no crime. I hope you’re able to take this advice to heart. Write back soon._

_Love,_

_Andromeda Black_

Remus definitely understood why he’d been so cheery as of the late. From then, he managed to become more reckless, but who was Remus to stop him? 

“When should we go?” Peter asked in the present. 

“Actually, right now would be perfect. It’s only a few hours until the feast is done so we can propose the idea to the elves and wait until they’re done!” James said excitedly, he jumped up off the floor and grabbed his wand.

Surprisingly, no one was suspicious of four mischief making boys running down to the dungeons when there were no classes that day. Subsequently, no one was suspicious of those four boys also waiting at a wall with a painting of fruit while people passed by. When the corridor was completely empty, they tickled at the painting looking for the spot Peter did it in.

“I’ve done a lot of strange things, but this is very close to being at the top of the list,” Remus shook his head while rubbing the picture. 

“Well it was like here— oh!” Peter squeaked and jumped back as the door swung open to reveal a high ceilinged room and many frantic house elves. The painting made a loud noise as it finished opening, causing all the elves to look at the four boys staring in shock. 

“Peter Pettigrew, sir!” A tiny elf poked out of the crowd and came up to hug him, only making it up to his stomach despite Peter being one-hundred forty-three centimeters tall. She had large bat-like ears that stuck out upwards and huge brown golf ball shaped eyes. 

“How many times have you been here?” James asked incredulously. 

Peter shrugged, “Only a couple of times, really. This is Fizzy!” He said, pointing to the small elf pressed up against his belly. Sirius looked hesitant to actually talk to the house elves despite being the one to suggest it. 

James knelt down to shake Fizzy’s tiny hand with two fingers and grinned so hard his eyes crinkled, “Hi Fizzy, I’m James!” 

“Hello, James, sir!” Fizzy squeaked, equally matching his happiness. Remus supposed James had a special liking for house elves, seeing how delighted he was to be around them. 

The elves all got back to their frantic working while Fizzy led them around the various ovens and tables. “This here is Fizzy’s station, sirs” She pointed to the smallest table that reached her mid chest. It had different kinds of cut up meats and cheeses on multiple cutting boards. 

“Wow, this is so cool!” James bounced in excitement. Sirius merely stood to the side and looked around awkwardly. Remus noticed and took a few steps back to stand next to him.

“You all right?” He asked quietly, making sure he didn’t catch James and Peter’s attention. 

Sirius shrugged, “Not a big fan of house elves, is all. Don’t worry about it.”

Remus nodded and walked back to where the other two were talking with Fizzy. James was proposing their big plan to turn the food different colors and she seemed to enjoy the idea, but would need permission from the other elves. She scurried on her tiny legs to who Remus assumed were the elves in charge. After a brief few minutes of talking, she came back with an excited look on her face.

“They says yes, sir! Only after the food is been put up on the tables, though,” Fizzy said and tapped her fingers together. “They is not wanting to get in trouble, sir.”

James narrowed his eyes and itched a finger on his jaw, “How would we change it if we can’t see it, then?” 

“While you is up in the Great Hall, sir! Mitty is telling me that she is most excited for the colors,” Fizzy said while jumping in her place a little.

James looked back at Remus, Sirius, and Peter with a grimace. “Thank you, Fizzy, we’ll be on our way now. It was nice meeting you!” 

“Of course, sir! Enjoy the feast!” Fizzy waved as the four made their way out of the portrait hole. 

Sirius groaned and Peter slumped against the wall. It seemed as though all their hard work was for nothing. Remus sat thinking. What if they could still pull it off? It would be one hell of a job to know exactly what they were changing when they could barely see it, but maybe it could work. Each one of them could aim for a table, and Remus started to nod to himself. It definitely could work!

“All right, I have an idea,” He smiled.

  
  


The Great Hall was quickly filling up, all four Gryffindor first years were the first to come in. Twenty minutes before anyone else, in fact. Lily seemed to notice their look of anticipation and walked up behind Remus.

“Why are you four here so early?” She asked sternly, giving Sirius, James, and Peter harsh looks. 

James snorted and shook his head, “Always so suspicious, Evans. We’re just hungry for this _amazing_ food they’ve prepared for us!” He rubbed his tummy and smiled, nodding a bit aggressively. 

She looked between all of them while squinting her eyes. “You’ve been leaving the common room after hours nearly everyday for _weeks!_ You’re lucky none of the other Gryffindors have told anyone because you’re terrible at sneaking out.” Lily said exasperatedly. 

James smiled and tilted his head at her, “Aw, watching us, are you?”

“Hard not to when all you do is draw attention to yourselves!” Lily snapped and backed away to sit down with Alice, Mary, and Dorcas. 

Sirius sneered at her and rolled his eyes. “Lovely bird, isn’t she?”

Remus frowned, rubbing his hands on his thighs. “She’s just been a bit upset at me lately, so she’s taking it out on all of us.”

Peter snort-laughed and smiled in disbelief. “No way! She hates us three and I’ve barely talked to her! She needs to loosen up a bit, it’s exhausting.”

“Exactly!” Sirius threw his hands up as though waiting for someone to call her out. “Just can’t leave us alone, can she?” 

They were suddenly interrupted by Professor Dumbledore who had his hands raised to quiet everyone down. Remus was extremely thankful for his timing. After everyone had settled, he lit two candles wandlessly and started to speak. 

“What a year it has been so far, nearly two months gone. Time seems to work in odd ways as such. I won’t keep you waiting, though. Enjoy the feast!” Dumbledore clapped his hands twice and it all appeared on top of the four tables. Lollipops, buckets of different candies, pumpkin juice, and many other various sweet foods. 

James looked at Sirius, who looked at Remus, who looked at Peter, who looked back at James. They all nodded once and discreetly pulled out their wands. James aimed for the Ravenclaw table, Sirius to Hufflepuff, Remus to Gryffindor, and Peter to Slytherin. The hall was loud enough that no one would hear them, it was perfect.

“ _Colovaria!”_ They said in unison, praying it worked the way they hoped it would. Gasps came from all around the room as things started to change colors. Remus looked down at the Gryffindor table, everything seemed to have gone right and only the food changed color. Unfortunately, looking up, he couldn’t say the same about the other houses.

Ravenclaw was almost perfect, only some students were hit and their hair was streaked with purples and reds. Hufflepuff was much worse, the table was even splattered in horrible maroons and blues. Slytherin was by far the worst, and Remus couldn’t help but laugh. Not only was the table hit, so was every single student. The vast majority were neon yellow, a bright orange, and cyan. Peter looked petrified by his work.

James put his hand over his mouth and ducked down to hide his obvious hysterics. Sirius fell off the bench laughing and nearly pulled Remus down with him as Peter stared across the room with wide eyes. Most of Gryffindor knew who had done it within seconds, as they were completely obvious. 

“Look at Snivellous! He’s gone turquoise!” James wheezed and dropped off the bench as well, unable to keep his composure. 

Almost the entire sulking Slytherin table had cleared out by the time Professor McGonagall made it to the four boys. None of them even cared as she handed them out detention for the next day, it was so worth it.

———

NOVEMBER 1, 1971

It was safe to say that the four boys were quickly gaining popularity for their prank the night before. People would come across them in the corridors and yell ‘ _nice one’_ or high five a very willing James and Sirius. Other students assumed Peter had poorly done the spell on the Slytherins on purpose which he was congratulated for; putting him in a very good mood. Remus got little credit for his work as no one focused on the food and were laughing at everyone else instead. In fact, most people in Gryffindor didn’t know he’d done it at all. They thought he was laughing because the other three did. Remus did not mind one bit, it gave him less detention time.

James was over the moon at his sudden burst in popularity, boasting to the other three about the attention he got. 

“It was me who came up with it, after all,” He smirked while tossing up a crumpled up piece of parchment; letting it go up a few inches before catching it again. 

“Actually, it was Remus and I. You should keep telling yourself that, though, maybe your head will get so big it’ll just explode,” Sirius joked. 

Peter snickered at the other side of the room, shaking his head. “Even I’ll give credit to them! Remus came up with the spell, and it was Sirius’s idea to do a prank in the first place—“

“But it was _my_ idea to do it on the food,” James whined, throwing the paper ball across the room onto Peter’s bed. “Next time, Peter and I will come up with the prank, how about that?”

Remus sat up at this, straining his arms to push himself. “Next time? We’re doing this again?”

James nodded and gave a mischievous grin, “Obviously.”

———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one’s pretty short! Thank you for almost 400 hits though, that means a lot to me!


	8. Year One : Sibling Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and Lily try to deal with their problematic siblings.

NOVEMBER 3, 1971

_Lily,_

_Stop sending me mail. Thank you._

_Petunia Evans_

Lily sighed and sat back on her bed. She’d sent at least five letters to Petunia and this was her only reply since she left. It hurt having her own family hate her, it really did. 

“What do you look so down for?” Alice sat down next to her with a concerned expression on her face. Lily shrugged and shook her head.

“It’s my sister. We’ve pretty much fallen out ever since I got my Hogwarts letter,” Lily handed over the small note that felt much heavier in her hand than it really was. “I sent her _so_ many letters to her to let her know how I was, and this is all she gives back!” 

Alice scanned the lined paper quickly and frowned, “She doesn’t sound very pleasant...how old is she?”

“Thirteen.”

Alice put the note back in Lily’s palm and held her hand with both of hers, “Well, you shouldn’t be worrying about her. If she’s given up on you that fast then I don’t think you should keep trying. She might just be sore from the fact that you’re a witch and she isn’t—“ 

“But she called me a—a freak!” Lily said angrily, scrunching up her eyebrows. 

“Probably just jealousy, to be honest. Who wouldn’t want to be able to use magic if they knew it existed?” Alice spoke softly while smiling.

Lily was so thankful for her, where would she be without Alice? She nodded and gave a small smile, “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, Alice,”

“Of course! If you ever need anything, I’m always here. But I’m sure you knew that,” Alice winked and stood up, making her way to the door. “By the way, Mary and Dorcas are in the Great Hall playing gobstones, do you wanna come with?”

“Sure!” Lily grinned, in a much better mood than before. She followed Alice out the door to the common room, the note completely forgotten.

———

Sirius looked up as a letter from a tiny brown owl dropped in front of him, making all four boys jump. Who was giving him mail that wasn’t his family? This didn’t look like Andromeda’s owl either. He picked it up with narrow eyes and stared at the back. It only said his name on the front in scribbly ink, probably done by someone very young. 

“Who’s that from?” James questioned while scarfing bacon down his mouth, muffling his voice. Sirius shrugged, he really had no clue. “Well go on and open it, then!”

He stared at it for another second before carefully peeling the letter open, it was a bit crumpled as well.

_Dear Sirius,_

_Walburga said I’m not to send letters to you, so I decided to use an owl I found on the street. Very improper, I know. I also know we don’t do celebrations, maybe you do at Hogwarts; but it is your Birthday today and I wanted to wish you a good one. How is Hogwarts? I expect Gryffindor is much different than you anticipated. I know it isn’t your fault, though. If you’re somehow able to respond, it would be appreciated._

_L̶o̶v̶e̶_

_Regards,_

_Regulus Black_

“Sirius?” Peter said, snapping Sirius out of his thinking and he looked up to find all three staring at him. It was silent for a moment. “Who is it?”

Sirius smiled then looked down and away, “Just my brother. He wanted to know how things are.”

Peter raised an eyebrow, “This late? It’s been two months.” He laughed.

“Well, it was mostly Walburga—my Mother’s fault. Wouldn’t like to touch on the details, it’s early in the morning!” Sirius grinned a bit too widely and immediately brought his face back to a neutral state. 

James tapped his pursed lips with the prongs of his fork and set it back down. “I say we drop it, it’s Sirius’ business, anyway.”

Peter nodded in slight embarrassment, his cheeks going pink. “I hate to keep being nosy, but is Remus visiting his mother again?”

Sirius shrugged — Remus hadn’t told them anything this time. It was the likely case, but after missing so many days of school, it was concerning to all of them. By the end of breakfast, they had agreed to take notes in turns for Remus during Potions and Defense. 

———

“Make sure to add the powdered ginger root,” Severus mumbled to the redhead next to him who looked extremely concentrated on her potion. She glanced up at him and nodded.

“Almost skipped that one, thanks!” Lily whispered as she took a pinch of the maroon substance and sprinkled it in. She didn’t skip it, but it was polite of her to thank him despite the fact. Severus had been her potions partner since the first class, and she found it as much enjoyable as frustrating. They both had a gift for potions, but he liked to remind her of things she hadn’t forgotten. 

She could hear giggling from the left behind her — she didn’t dare turn around. Lily had heard this same giggling in far too many classes to _not_ recognize it as Potter and Black. What was so funny about making a Cure for Boils? Lily couldn’t say. They were too much like brothers already, they even attended detention together! Lily hadn’t gotten a single one yet, and she was quite proud of it.

Lily added the pickled shrake spines, still able to concentrate while lost in thought. Thinking of people acting like siblings made her frown and sigh. She thought of all the times she had told scary stories with Tuney in pillow forts — when they had been able to tell each other secrets. She missed it oh so desperately. But what about Alice? Lily smiled a little as she stirred the cauldron gently. Alice could be like her new sister, what did it matter if she was younger? Lily could handle a little sister. 

After adding the last few ingredients, the mixture turned a silvery color and there was bright pink smoke coming from it. Lily smiled down at her creation — she loved Potions class, it was like cooking back at home. 

“Are you done?” Severus asked as he poured a sample of his mixture that had a more pink tint to it into a flask. Lily nodded once and started to clean up her section of the table while Severus tipped her cauldron to let the contents spill into another labeled flask. He brought both to the front to Slughorn who nodded and smiled. 

“How are my two favorite people?” Potter said with his arms outstretched. He walked to the Courtyard beside Lily and Severus who looked miserable in his presence.

“What?!” Black and Pettigrew popped up behind Potter with an offended look on their faces. 

Potter was holding in a laugh and had a tight lipped smile, “Sorry, these two beat you out.”

“Replaced by a sniveling git and a mu—ginger! Outrageous!” Black exclaimed, Lily didn’t notice what he’d almost said, but Severus definitely did.

“What was that?” Severus asked broodily, speaking in dark tones. Black sneered at Severus and raised his eyebrows.

“What was what?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” 

Black scoffed, “Say that one a lot, do you? I’d expect it from a Slytherin—“

“All right, Sirius…let’s not.” Potter whispered and pulled on Black’s sleeve to redirect them.

Lily was confused, what were they talking about? Why was Black getting so defensive?

Severus crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree. “Are you not a Black? It doesn’t surprise me that you’d be just like the rest of them. Snobby and pretentious.“

Black took a step back before pulling out his wand and pointing it at Severus. His jaw was clenched and eyebrows lowered. Lily put her hand on her wand that was rested in her pocket just in case.

“Sirius, let’s go!” Potter raised his voice and grabbed Black by the shoulders, pulling him back. Sirius looked down and away, his fists clenched his sides. Potter, Black, and Pettigrew started down the hill side, Black stiff in Potter’s hold.

“Yeah, you run off.” Severus muttered and slid down the tree onto their usual spot. Lily didn’t understand why either side was angry.

“Severus, what were you talking about? What did Black say?” Lily asked as she sat down next to him. 

Severus looked at her then looked away, tapping his foot on the grass. “It doesn’t concern you, don’t worry about it.”

Lily squinted at him, he was definitely hiding something. She _would_ interrogate Black about it, but he seemed angry enough about it. Instead, she slumped down and twiddled her fingers in defeat. 

———

_Dear Reg,_

_Hello, I’m so happy to hear from you! Hogwarts is fantastic, you’ll love it next year. Thank you for the birthday wishes, (I didn’t know you cared all that much?) It did make me surprised and happy. I hope everything is well at Grimmauld Place and that Walburga isn’t giving you a hard time now that I’ve been sorted into Gryffindor. Please try to break rules less. If you can’t respond I won’t be upset, maybe worried, though._

_L̶o̶v̶_

_Sincerely,_

_Sirius_

Sirius shivered as he climbed up the West Tower to the Owlery, the freshly written letter in his hand. He hoped oh so desperately that it could reach Regulus safely. What would he do if he got hurt? Surely Walburga hadn’t _really_ meant it when she said Regulus was restricted from sending him letters, right? Sirius was already tense from the fight earlier that day, the last thing he wanted to do was be a cause of Regulus’ pain. 

After picking out a particularly small owl in order for it to be unnoticeable, he tied the scroll to it’s leg and let the bird fly off. He couldn’t tell Regulus how happy he was in Gryffindor and how little he now wished to be in Slytherin. Sirius supposed it would be too much for little Reg’s brain.

As of today, Sirius was twelve — not that it really mattered. He didn’t feel any different nor did he care. It shocked him when Regulus mentioned his birthday in the letter, it was so unlike him. Regulus was always more reserved than Sirius. It was also usually Sirius that was punished when he stood up for his little brother all the times he made a mistake. Though, what was considered a mistake varied. So Regulus borderline defying their parents wasn’t expected, to say the least.

Sirius scuffed his shoes on the ground as he walked, kicking small pebbles across the stone path. Hogwarts already felt more like home than Grimmauld Place ever did. The air wasn’t suffocating and he could _feel_ things. He could be mannerless, break rules, have friends, say what he wanted — it was mind blowing. Despite his awful mistake earlier, he felt content with how far he’d already come. What would he do without James? Merlin, he was so thankful for James Potter.

His thoughts were interrupted as he walked into something and Sirius stumbled backwards. He looked at what he had just bumped into and oh, Evans. They were both frozen in place, looking at each other with odd expressions.

“Do you need something?” Sirius queried, raising an eyebrow. Evans held a poorly hidden envelope behind her back and her face looked like she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t be.

“No!” She said in a high pitched voice that only made Sirius more curious. Even though he wasn’t fond of the girl, he decided not to go more into his curiosity, it was a bit intrusive. 

Sirius nodded and continued walking while she stood still. He made it about six steps before she started talking again.

“Actually, I have a question,” Evans said quickly. He slowly turned around and spread his arms out, inviting her to continue. “What did you say earlier? That you and Severus fought about?”

Sirius averted his eyes and cringed internally. This wasn’t going to be fun. He trudged his way back to her until they were face to face, Evans challenging him to speak up. 

“I’d rather not drop a hard truth on you. So to put it nicely, some people don’t like some other people for the way they’re born. I personally dislike you for other reasons, but it just so happened to...slip out,” He started, moving his hands to emphasize certain words. “I did catch myself, actually. James didn’t do all that work for nothing,” Sirius muttered to himself.

Evans raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, scoffing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. “Would you just tell me?”

“I was trying to say it nicely Evans, but you just want the truth? That’s odd,” Sirius frowned and softly chuckled. “The word I almost said… again, didn’t actually say. I _almost_ did. It’s Mudblood. You’re born from Muggles, and are a witch. That’s what it means. Once again, I didn’t really say it—“

“Okay, I get it! Is there something wrong with being born from Muggles?” Evans interrupted looking slightly hurt. 

Sirius felt a little bit of pity for her naivety. He grimaced and rubbed on his arms. “Well...yes...no? It’s a magical blood thing. I don’t think I’d have the time to explain it. To put it simply, I am a Pureblood, you are Muggleborn. Again, I dislike you for _other_ reasons.” Sirius raised his hands up in defense. 

Evans scrunched her nose and shook her head. “I think that’s ridiculous. Anyway, why _do_ you dislike me? I do because you’re obnoxious and hate my friends.”

“Oh, here we go…” Sirius put his head in his hand. This girl was insufferable. “First of all, I don’t hate your friends. I’m good friends with Remus, who’s disappeared again...has he told you where he’s off to this month?”

She stared at him in disbelief of the sudden conversation change. “No? This month? Do you know where he went the other two times? I didn’t want to ask in case it was rude or annoying.”

“You ask a lot of annoying questions so don’t be surprised,” Sirius raised both eyebrows in a slightly patronizing way. Evans rolled her eyes. “Anyway, yes I do know what he was doing the other times. His Mother isn’t well. Maybe you two aren’t as close as you thought! He hangs out with us way more than you now.”

“Very funny, Black. I’ll be off now, I have things to do,” Evans uncrossed her arms and started back to the Owlery.

Sirius shrugged and shouted after she’d walked a few meters, “You’re the one who started the conversation! I still don’t like you!” 

“You never explained why!” She shouted back and turned back around.

What a strange girl, Sirius thought as he trudged up the stone stairs back to the castle.

———

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo, I’ve just delayed this chapter a day to move the posting date up to Saturday because school got in the way of some things. Thanks for reading, though!!


	9. First Year : Discovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius rants to James and Lily has suspicions on Remus.

NOVEMBER 25, 1971

“ _Alohamora!_ ” Peter pointed at his lock that sat in front of him, the spell having no effect. Charms was his worst class, he just couldn’t figure out the little details of the wand movements. Herbology and Astronomy was what he excelled in, and he would definitely be taking Divination third year. 

His roommates were having a similar amount of trouble, Remus a bit less as he read the textbooks before. James was lazily flicking his wand at the lock, hoping that his efforts would be enough. Sirius was sharply moving and getting very frustrated at his lack of success. 

Peter thought it was completely unfair to have Ravenclaw in the same class as Gryffindor, their brains picked things up much faster — the only exception being Evans. It was always the same two Ravenclaws, Night and McKinnon. Two girls with a gift for charms and Flitwick’s favorite students. He groaned and let his head fall onto his arms that rested on the table, making a soft thud sound.

“Completely understandable, this is a nightmare!” Sirius mumbled, dropping his wand onto the desktop. 

“Well, I’m getting better at it,” Remus shrugged and smiled a little, content with his progress. Sirius gave him a deadly look and copied Peter’s sitting position. James adjusted his glasses, half asleep and slumping over.

“Mate, you alright?” Peter asked, eyes full of concern. “Bad sleep?”

James shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m a bit homesick.”

Sirius squinted his eyes and scrunched his nose in confusion. Remus lightly slapped his arm and raised his eyebrows aggressively, telling Sirius off. Over the couple of months, Peter picked up on the small details and put the pieces together, not that he wanted to. He didn’t want to confront Sirius either, what if he wasn’t comfortable? He seemed comfortable with telling Remus, though. He probably told James as well. Not that it mattered, of course. Something like that is hard to tell other people about.

Peter’s parents were well enough — a bit negligent at times but it was understandable, they both worked full time. In fact, it was usually Peter who had to take care of his younger sister, Holly. He glanced over at Night who was locking and unlocking the piece of metal that McKinnon was floating through the air and let out a loud groan.

———

“What a couple of show-offs!” Remus complained as he flopped down on his bed, pulling out a chocolate bar. 

James shrugged, lugging himself to heavily sit down on the edge of the bed. “They _are_ Ravenclaws, you know. No need to be fussy about it-“

“I’m not being fussy!” Remus retorted, raising his arms with a mouth full of chocolate. “I just think it’s unfair to us, we look so much worse compared to them.”

“That’s because we suck!” Sirius chimed in from the other side of the room, digging through his chest. Peter chuckled and set his books down on his desk.

“Always the pesstimist, aren’t you?” James smirked, throwing a pillow at Sirius’s back which made him stumble forward into the chest. 

“Pessimist, James—“ Remus started.

“Oh, is that how it is?” Sirius turned around with a grin on his face. He picked up the pillow and sprinted, leaping over onto James and smacking him straight across the face with it. 

They scrambled until they were tackled on the floor rolling around and play-fighting. Peter and Remus glanced at each other and shook their heads, equally disappointed and joyful. After half the room had been rearranged and the two idiots were too tired to continue, they laid on the floor in silence.

The door was slammed open to a familiar face who was completely fuming. Frank Longbottom stood at the door and took a deep breath. “If you four don’t turn the noise down I might just hex the absolute shit out of you!”

“WOAH, NOW HOLD ON…” James jumped up and waved his finger in Frank’s face. “You just swore in front of a bunch of children! You know that? You twelve year olds think you own this place!”

“Hey!” Sirius pushed off the ground and crossed his arms.

“You’re twelve?!” James gaped and closed the door on a shouting Frank. “When was your birthday?”

Sirius froze and awkwardly scratched his neck. “Never?”

“Never?” Peter ridiculed, laughing at the stupidity of it. Sirius nodded and sat down on his bed, calmly opening a book. 

“Oh, now something’s _really_ wrong. Sirius is _reading!_ ” Remus teased, earning a look from Sirius above the book. “Makes fun of _me_ for reading, he does.” Remus muttered while raising his eyebrows.

“Sirius was just never born!” James leaned against the wall and shook his head. “Isn’t that right?”

“Oh shut up, you lot.” Sirius held in a chuckle behind the book he clearly wasn’t looking at. “I don’t like birthdays all that much, anyway.” 

Remus caught on and let the topic go, as did everyone else in the room.

———

DECEMBER 1, 1971

It was a cold night in Gryffindor tower, snow softly hit the windows, the only thing keeping the room warm was the fireplace. Two students were sitting on the armchairs, doing homework late at night — a habit they started a few weeks back. “Are you planning to go home for the holidays?” Lily asked.

Remus looked up from his parchment, wincing as his neck strained against his tense muscles. There were two full moons this month — including tomorrow, and his body was taking a horrible toll for it. “No, can’t. My parents are...out of the country.” 

Lily knitted her eyebrows. “I thought your Mother was sick?” 

Remus gaped slightly, his eyes flickering around the room as if an excuse would be on the floor. “Who told you that?”

“Black.” 

“Since when do you talk to _Sirius?_ ” Remus started to pack up his quill and inkwell, anything to get out faster. It was late, anyway.

Lily shrugged and shook her head, “We don’t...it was actually a terrible encounter. He’s not the most pleasant person to talk to.”

Remus rolled his eyes and placed his things in his bag, ready to leave the room as fast as he could. “Yeah, well, my Mother is feeling better now. So, they’re taking a trip to celebrate her recovery.”

“Without you?” She stood up and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.

Remus felt his composure spilling out by the second. “Yes…?”

Lily nodded, rolling her scroll together and carefully placing it in her bag. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Remus could’ve cursed at that moment. What was he supposed to tell her? “Not really, actually—”

“But didn’t you just say your Mother is well?” Lily looked at Remus with concern. “It’s remarkable how you _aren’t_ falling behind, but to miss again? Is it multiple days again?”

Remus closed his eyes and nodded, feeling his insides clawing at him. On the verge of being a wolf, but just too little moonlight. 

“You’re hiding something,” Lily spoke softly. He hated when she did that, it made one feel like they could tell her anything in the world. Remus shook his head and started up the stairs, his walls closing in on him. How would he _possibly_ keep this up for six more years?

———

Lily closed the door behind her to her dorm room, everyone else in the room asleep. She paced around, trying to think of what could be the reason Remus kept missing class? It was very obvious he was making things up, none of the stories made sense. She sat on the windowsill, looking at the view from the window. There seemed to be a pattern, but he never left on the same day. It was always around the beginning of the month. 

The rolling hills coated with white powdery snow reflected the nearly full moon through the window. Lily sighed and rested her head on her forearms, taking in the sight. Suddenly, she looked up at the moon again, almost by instinct. She saw how it wasn’t full, but only just. Surely it would be a full moon the next day.

Lily shook her head, it’s a terrible coincidence. She wasn’t even sure if they were real. Flashes of Remus’s scars appeared in her mind, and the blatant lying to her face. It all made _sense_...but that would be impossible. She could check the library the next morning, perhaps there was a book on them. Lily tried to lay down and sleep, but her thoughts filled her mind to the brim with theories and ideas. Save them for tomorrow, she thought.

———

DECEMBER 2, 1971

Just as Remus said, he was nowhere to be seen besides their first class which was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He looked horrible, as he normally did when he left later in the day. Maybe she was overthinking it, and it was _Remus_ who had the illness and he wanted to hide it with excuses. Lily felt terrible, but she wanted to be sure. 

She picked out a dozen books and sat down, spreading them out to give room for her parchment and quill. From _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ to _Moon Cycles and Why They Are Important_ , she had a wide variety of informative books. There really was no harm in research. 

First, she had to find out if they were real in the first place, that’s where _Fantastic Beasts_ would come in handy. She flipped to the ‘W’ section on page eighty-three and her heart dropped. Classified as an ‘XXXXX’ in perceived dangerousness of a creature. Lily let out a small chuckle, tiny Remus Lupin an ‘XXXXX’ rated creature, yeah right. Referring to Remus as a creature made Lily feel quite sick. She had to remind herself that what she was doing was only research. 

There was very little information on Werewolves in nearly every book, it made Lily’s search impossible. Most said that they were horrible dangerous creatures that needed to be tamed. By the end, she decided to mark down the full moon dates for the next five months. 

If her thought process was proven correct, what would she do? Lily couldn’t possibly tell him, he’d freak out and she didn’t want that at all. There was nothing stated in the books on how to take care of Werewolves when it wasn’t the full moon. Perhaps she was overthinking it all.

———

Sirius was having a panic for two reasons — Regulus never replied to his letter, and the holidays were coming up too soon. He paced around the dorm room, tugging at his hair that was longer than Walburga ever allowed it to be. 

“Sirius, you alright? You’re pacing again,” Came a muffled voice from the bathroom. James walked out with a toothbrush in his mouth, concern plain on his face. 

He could barely hear James, his brain wracking through different thoughts and scenarios of what happened to Regulus and what will happen to him. Sirius looked around the room, finding Peter and Remus absent, and groaned. He bounced on the balls of his feet and shook his hands in a time of stress.

“Hey!” James caught him by the shoulders and looked up at Sirius who immediately stiffened up by the touch. “What's going on?”

“Holidays are soon, James!” Sirius moaned, slapping his palm on his forehead. “I’m dead!”

“Why? What’s wrong with the Holidays?” James questioned, as he only knew December as a time for celebration. 

“I have to go home, I can’t go home!” Sirius agonized, still stuck in his own thoughts. He turned back to Remus’s bed, despite knowing he wouldn’t be there. “Why is he always gone?! Where is Peter?”

James blinked, squinting his eyes at Sirius in utter confusion. “I don’t _know_ why Remus is always gone, and Peter’s in the common room. Did something happen at home?”

Sirius nodded, forgetting he hadn’t told James all the details yet — Remus was the one who knew the most. “I’m gonna be punished when I get there, she probably knows I spoke to Regulus, too!”

James paused. “Who’s Regulus?”

“My baby brother, you idiot!” 

James raised his hands up in defense. “I’m sorry, you never told me! What’s so bad about talking to your brother?”

“Nothing. Except, _Walburga_ thinks that I shouldn’t be allowed to because I’m a bloody _Gryffindor_!” Sirius started to pace again, waving his hands around and shouting. James stood in silence, letting him get his anger out. 

“You know what I think, James? I think that she’s rotten! A horrible woman! Who doesn’t let her son speak to his own brother?! For something I can’t control? The _audacity_ ! I’ll have her know I speak to Andromeda, her disowned niece, she’s my favorite cousin! And I have many to choose from! Sure, I’ll probably get hurt telling her, but who cares! Not me, that’s who. If she laid even a _finger_ on my brother, I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind! Oh Merlin, she’s probably already hurt Regulus, oh bloody hell—“

“ _Hurt?”_ James finally interrupted. “Your Mother?”

Sirius groaned again and sunk to the floor, burying his face in his hands. He shook his head and carded through his hair again — it was becoming a terrible habit. “You just don’t understand it, your life seems so _nice—“_

“Then help me understand! I asked you before and you backed out. _Please_ just tell me what it is,” James begged, sitting with his arms around the shoulders of a tensed up Sirius. 

So hunched over with a troubled expression, Sirius started to explain what he told Remus just over two months earlier. He realized after a while that James had stopped asking questions and only listened to what he had to say. It made Sirius feel a small amount of warmth in his chest. Did James feel that tiny flame all the time? Was it any brighter? Sirius finally looked over his shoulder at James who wasn’t looking at him with pity, but with understanding.

“You don’t think I’m weak, do you?” Sirius mumbled. 

James shook his head solemnly, “You’re the least weak person I know, Sirius.” 

Sirius sniffled and smiled a little, feeling so much appreciation for his best friend. “I also speak to my cousin, Andromeda... she’s disowned for marrying a Muggleborn,” He paused to chuckle, looking up at the ceiling and whispering, “Walburga would kill me.”

“Don’t laugh about that!” James lightly hit Sirius’s shoulder, smiling in disbelief.

———

DECEMBER 4, 1971

Remus did not expect to have multiple eyes on him when he came back from the Hospital Wing. Lily, Sirius, and Peter kept their eyes on Remus as he entered the Great Hall, keeping his head down while barely concealing his very obvious limp. This moon was worse than the majority of every month he had to endure lycanthropy — a brand new red streak across his face to show for it. 

As soon as Remus sat down, Lily stood up and walked over with a pitying face. She pushed herself between Frank and Remus to sit on his left, huffing as she settled herself on the bench. Remus side eyed her, piling a random assortment of breakfast foods on his porcelain plate. 

“Hello…” Remus said slowly, he noticed his three roommates looking at the two of them out of the corner of his eye. 

Lily tilted her head, her eyebrows furrowed. “How are you feeling?” 

“Fine,” He answered quickly with a forced positive tone, cringing inwardly at the way he sounded. To hide it, he shoveled another three forkfuls of eggs in his mouth. Remus didn’t like eggs, but desperate times after full moons called for desperate measures.

“Good!” She smiled, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and squeezing. 

Remus was so very uncomfortable and tensed up at the touch, what was she doing? Either one of three things he supposed: she was just being nice, someone’s put her under a potion, or she knew. Sure there were definitely more reasons why she could be acting this way, but his already overwhelmed brain was malfunctioning a bit at the time. 

“Do you need something?” Remus shrugged her off as kindly as he could despite the heavy weights he felt on him.

Lily was completely oblivious to the fact that she was making Remus uncomfortable by staring at the new scar on the left side of his face. Remus tried to eat but just couldn’t with her eyes on him; she definitely knew something. 

“Hey, Evans, you’re making him uncomfortable,” Sirius sneered, snapping his fingers to get her attention. 

She knitted her eyebrows in confusion; then she noticed how Remus was hunched over with his hand slightly covering his mouth and diverted eyes. 

“Am I? I’m so sorry, Remus!” She immediately apologized, standing up and internally cringing at herself. Dorcas gave her a side eye when she sat back down next to her, Mary, and Alice. 

Remus abruptly stood up on his hurting legs and started out the Great Hall — he supposed he could just eat later. 

———

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for 500 hits <3


End file.
